Windows NT assigns browser tasks to specific computers on the network. The computers work together to provide a centralized list of shared resources, eliminating the need for all machines to maintain their own lists. This reduces the CPU time and network traffic needed to build and maintain the list.
The Windows NT Browser system consists of a master browser, backup browsers, and browser clients. The computer that is the master browser maintains the browse list and periodically sends copies to the backup browsers. When a browser client needs information, it obtains the current browse list by remotely sending a NetServerEnum application programming interface (API) call to either the master browser or a backup browser.
A datagram is a network message packet that can be sent to a mailslot on a specified computer (a directed datagram) or to a mailslot on any number of computers (a broadcast datagram). This centralized-browser architecture reduces the number of datagrams sent to produce the available resource list. The centralized-browser architecture also reduces demands on the client CPU and memory.