Overview of WINS Servers

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WINS servers prevent the administrative difficulties inherent in the use of both NetBIOS name query broadcasts and static mapping files such as LMHOSTS files. Microsoft WINS eliminates the need for NetBIOS name query broadcasts, saving valuable network bandwidth while maintaining a dynamic database of NetBIOS name–to–IP address mappings.

The databases replicated between WINS servers contain NetBIOS names and their associated IP addresses. When Windows-based computers log on to the network, their NetBIOS names and IP addresses are registered and added to the WINS server database, providing support for dynamic updates. The WINS server database is replicated among multiple WINS servers in a LAN or WAN. This database replication prevents users from registering duplicate NetBIOS names for different computers on the network.

A Microsoft WINS server solves the problems inherent in resolving names through IP broadcasts and frees network administrators from the demands of updating static mapping files. WINS automatically updates the WINS database when dynamic addressing through DHCP assigns new IP addresses—for instance, when computers move between subnets.

WINS servers also provide the following benefits:

  • Dynamic database that supports NetBIOS name registration and resolution in an environment where DHCP-enabled clients are configured for dynamic TCP/IP address allocation.

  • Centralized management of the NetBIOS name database and replication to other WINS servers.

  • Reduction of NetBIOS name query broadcast traffic.

  • Support for client computers running Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows for Workgroups, and LAN Manager 2. x .

  • Support for transparent browsing across routers for client computers running Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows for Workgroups.

Microsoft WINS servers communicate with other Microsoft WINS servers to fully replicate their databases with each other. This ensures that a name registered with one WINS server is replicated to all other Microsoft WINS servers within the intranet, providing a consistent enterprise-wide database. When a network uses multiple WINS servers, every WINS server is configured as a pull partner or a push partner of at least one other WINS server.

A pull partner is a WINS server that requests new WINS database entries, called replicas, from its partner. The pull occurs at set intervals, defined by the replication interval, or in response to an update notification from a push partner.

A push partner is a WINS server that sends update notification messages after the database receives the number of updates that exceed the update count threshold or sends them immediately if the server is configured to send updates when an address changes (by selecting the On Address Change check box in the Replication Partners window of the WINS console). If you have configured the WINS server this way, it propagates the triggers received from a partner to all other partners when its WINS database changes. The partners of the WINS server then pull these changed entries from the WINS server with the updated database.