Autodiscovery of WINS Partners

The autodiscovery feature enables a WINS server to discover its replication partners automatically, rather than being manually configured with a predetermined set of replication partners. To turn this feature on from the Microsoft Management Console, on the Replication Partners Properties page, check the Enable automatic partner configuration check box.

Periodically, WINS servers announce their presence on the network. The WINS announcements are sent on a multicast address reserved for WINS (224.0.1.24). WINS servers with autodiscovery enabled listen for these announcements and learn about other WINS servers on the network. Any WINS servers discovered this way are automatically added to the partners list as both a push and pull partner. This feature should be used only when you are sure that no unauthorized WINS servers will be placed on the network. Otherwise, the unauthorized servers are picked up as partners.