When do i need a wins server

The names contained in WINS are located in a unified namespace with a length of 15 characters, and the registration of these names is automatically completed using dynamic IP addresses.

WINS recognizes incremental replication of data, which means that only changes made to the database are replicated between WINS servers. Do this regularly to maintain consistency. Since DNS does not approve of this incremental copy of data, the entire database will be copied when any form of change is made.

To sum up, this post introduces what the WINS server is, how does it work as well as what the role of it is. This step is necessary to avoid name duplication. Once no other name is found on the network, the client will then register itself in the WINS database. After some time after all WINS clients have received the WINS server to point to and have registered themselves, all clients can resolve all other client names through name resolution even across different networks.

A WINS replication partner can be either configured in a pull or push manner. Pull replication partners request updated database records from Push partners. These requests occur every 15 minutes or in response to an update notification from a Push partner. Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services.

Privacy policy. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Windows NT 3. I can't imagine any sensible customers who might still have these ancient platforms running, but you never know. Sometimes an organization will keep an old server or client computer around because it controls or monitors some industrial system and they don't want to or have any idea how to upgrade the system while ensuring the legacy control software still works properly.

WINS will also be required if you have any legacy applications still running that have a dependency on NetBIOS name resolution either because of the way the application is configured or how it has been coded. Finding such applications can be a challenge--see the next section below for a possible approach. If you still have a WINS server or two on your network and you're not sure whether they might still be needed or not, try capturing the inbound and outbound network traffic on the server over a period of time.

Or it may be because of some ancient, long-forgotten legacy application running on them that is hard-coded to use NetBIOS name resolution instead of using DNS for name resolution. If that is the case they you have several options you could pursue:. Be aware that such applications may be tied to specific hardware such as legacy Network Attached Storage devices which may only know how to register themselves on the network using NetBIOS traffic.

WINS might also still be required because of poor choices in how you or your predecessors have configured your environment as administrators. Did you know that you might have just created a WINS dependency?

See KB for more details.