DNS with "WINS Reverse Lookup" Fails with Multiple IP Addresses

 Last reviewed: January 20, 1998
Article ID: Q162842
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you use NSLOOKUP to perform reverse lookup using a Windows NT 4.0 Domain Name Service (DNS) server that has a network adapter with multiple IP addresses (and has a zone that has "Use WINS Resolution" enabled) you receive the following error:

[dns server] can't find IP address: Non-existent domain

CAUSE

By design NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) supports only one IP address per network interface card (NIC) adapter. It is possible to configure TCP/IP to have multiple IP addresses on a single NIC, but NetBT will only support the first address configured. For more information, please see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q131641
   TITLE     : NetBT Supports One IP Address per NIC

MORE INFORMATION

Reverse WINS lookups are made through node status requests, not through WINS. Because the WINS database is not indexed by IP addresses, Windows NT 4.0 Domain Name Service (DNS) does not send a reverse name lookup to WINS to get the computer's name given its IP address. Instead, it sends a node status request directly to the given IP address (the equivalent of "nbtstat -A <ip_address>") 

   NBT: NS: Query req. for *<00...(15)>
and gets the NetBIOS name from the node status response: 

   NBT: NS: Query (Node Status) resp. for *<00...(15)>, Success
DNS then appends the domain name to the NetBIOS name and returns the results to its clients.

For more information, see the following article in the Microsoft knowledge base: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q154553
   TITLE     : Windows NT 4.0 DNS WINS Reverse Lookups Do Not Use WINS

Keywords          : NTPROTOCOL NTSrvWkst nttcp kbnetwork
Version           : WinNT:4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbprb

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Last reviewed: January 20, 1998
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