Chapter 5 - Developing a WINS Strategy

Abstract

The Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is Microsoft's implementation of a NetBIOS name server. WINS provides a centralized mechanism to resolve NetBIOS names to IP addresses. WINS has been part of each version of Windows NT, up to and including Windows 2000. WINS provides NetBIOS name resolution on the network, via a dynamic database that matches “friendly” NetBIOS names to IP addresses. Users prefer names to numbers; it is easier for human beings to think of a particular computer on the network as “MyServer” than as “192.168.0.9.” However, computers on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network use IP addresses to communicate with one another. In order to be able to type “Connect to another computer” using the “MyServer” name, there must be some way for a computer to discover the IP address of the computer that goes by that name. Even though Windows NT has supported WINS since the start, many smaller networks did not use it. Generally, it is not a good idea to remove WINS server from one's network and rely exclusively on DNS, until the user has upgraded all of his/her workstations to Windows 2000 Professional and the servers to Windows 2000 Server.