Wins

Discussion in 'Network Infrastructure' started by Arunram, Feb 27, 2010.

  1. Arunram

    Arunram Byte Poster

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    Hosting a WINS server is Mandatory in windows environment? If so why? DNS is not enough?
     
    Certifications: MCP
    WIP: MCSE
  2. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    WINS was more mandatory with an NT4 infrastructure environment where you were relying on NetBios than an AD infrastructure that relies on IP, you shouldn't 'need' WINS now days but if you do so it's only because you're still relying on NetBios.
     
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  3. Phoenix
    Honorary Member

    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    WINS? mandatory? are you kidding me
    i make it my mission in life to uninstall it everywhere i see it

    DNS is more than adequate in most environments
    WINS is around for backward compat and legacy app support really
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCITP, VCP
    WIP: > 0
  4. Big Bad JV

    Big Bad JV Bit Poster

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    I agree, WINS is the NETBIOS name lookup system in the same way DNS is the Domain Name lookup system. In a modern network you shouldn't need WINS however it can be handy as a fall back if DNS is failing for some reason. It's interesting though that if you run the best practice analyser for Exchange 2003 it will flag up as an issue if you don't have a WINS server, it must use WINS in some way. Can't remember if you get the same issue with an Exchange 2007 server.

    JV
     
    Certifications: MCSE
    WIP: CCNA, CCNA Voice
  5. zebulebu

    zebulebu Terabyte Poster

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    WINS is still a necessity in most (note 'most' - not 'all') multi-site, multi-subnet Exchange environments. This is because Exchange 2K/2K3 internally still uses netbios for many of it's name-resolution chores between servers. Of course, if youlre routing netbios across your WAN, or don't have multiple subnets, this won't apply. However, you should also note that any 'downlevel' Outlook clients (2003 and below) use netbios for most of thier mapi calls - so will function poorly, unreliably, or not at all in environments without WINS.
     
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  6. supernova

    supernova Gigabyte Poster

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    I thought that with NetBT as long as you had the right naming conventions and set-up the NETBIOS name can be converted and used with DNS if it couldn't be resolved via a NETBIOS broadcast (or WINS). I believe this option is disabled by default for server 2000 and above.
     
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