Basic WINS Troubleshooting

The following error conditions can indicate potential problems with the WINS server:

• The administrator can't connect to a WINS server using WINS Manager. The message that appears might be, "The RPC server is unavailable."
• The WINS Client service or Windows Internet Name Service might be down and cannot be restarted.

The first troubleshooting task is to make sure the appropriate services are running.

To ensure the WINS services are running

1. Use the Services option in Control Panel to verify that the WINS services are running.

In the Services dialog box for the client computer, Started should appear in the Status column for the WINS Client service. For the WINS server itself, Started should appear in the Status column for the Windows Internet Name Service.

2. If a necessary service is not started on either computer, start the service.

The following describes solutions to common WINS problems.

To locate the source of "duplicate name" error messages

• Check the WINS database for the name. If there is a static record, remove it from the database of the primary WINS server.

– Or –

Set the value of MigrateOn in the Registry to 1, so the static records in the database can be updated by dynamic registrations (after WINS successfully challenges the old address).

To locate the source of "network path not found" error messages on a WINS client

Check the WINS database for the name. If the name is not present in the database, check whether the computer uses b-node name resolution. If so, add a static mapping for it in the WINS database.

If the computer is configured as a p-node, m-node, or h-node and if its IP address is different from the one in the WINS database, then it may be that its address changed recently and the new address has not yet replicated to the local WINS server. To get the latest records, ask the WINS server that registered the address to perform a push replication with propagation to the local WINS server.

To discover why a WINS server cannot pull or push replications to another WINS server

1. Confirm that the router is working.
2. Ensure that each server is correctly configured as either a pull or push partner.
   • If ServerA needs to perform pull replications with ServerB, make sure it is a push partner of ServerB.
   • If ServerA needs to push replications to ServerB, it should be a pull partner of WINS ServerB.

To determine the configuration of a replication partner, check the values under the \Pull and \Push keys in the Registry, as described in "Advanced Configuration Parameters for WINS" later in this chapter.

To determine why WINS backup is failing consistently

• Make sure the path for the WINS backup directory is on a local disk on the WINS server.

WINS cannot back up its database files to a remote drive.