Verify WINS registration

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Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

You can use this topic to verify that all computers on the test network have registered their NetBIOS names with the WINS server, to verify that networking is functioning correctly, and to ensure that your configuration matches the requirements of this guide before you begin the BranchCache testing process.

Membership in Administrators, or equivalent is the minimum required to perform this procedure.

To verify computer registration in WINS

  1. On Content-01, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager. Server Manager opens.

  2. In the Server Manager left pane, click and expand Features and then WINS.

  3. In WINS, click Active Registrations. Note that no WINS records are displayed in the right pane yet. Right-click Active Registrations, and then click Display Records. The Display Records dialog box opens.

  4. In Display Records, on the Record Mapping tab, click Find Now.

  5. The Display Records dialog box closes, and the WINS registrations for all computers that have registered a record with the server are displayed in Active Registrations.

  6. In Active Registrations, you should see both [00h] Workstation and [20h] File Server WINS records for all computers on the network, including Client-01, Client-02, Content-01, and Hosted-01, as illustrated in the example below.

    If all computers have registered records in the WINS database, your test network is installed correctly, and you can continue with the BranchCache tests in this guide.

    If one or more computers have not registered records in WINS, do the following:

    1. Verify that you have configured the WINS server IP address in TCP/IP v4 network connection properties according to the instructions provided in the topic Configure a static IP address.

    2. Either restart the computer so that it automatically registers its NetBIOS name with the WINS server or run the following command at the command prompt to release and then renew the name record registration with the WINS server: nbtstat -RR

Important

In order for you to successfully perform the procedures in this guide, Content-01 must register its own record in the WINS database. If Content-01 has not registered a record in WINS, configure the TCP/IP v4 properties of the network connection on Content-01 with its own IP address as the WINS server. This will cause Content-01 to register its own record if it has not already done so.

Note

A Microsoft WINS server record includes the WINS client NetBIOS name, IP address, and a value called a version ID. When you release and renew the record, an existing record’s version ID is incremented or a new record is registered. When you run nbtstat -RR, a timer is invoked so that the command cannot be successfully run again for 2 minutes. This delay is provided to prevent a WINS server from becoming saturated by client renewal requests. The –RR portion of the command syntax is case sensitive.