Reducing and Redirecting WINS Traffic

Even after deploying a majority of Windows 2000 computers, most networks must continue using WINS for some time. Once you have begun decommissioning servers, several additional reconfiguration options can reduce both the number of WINS servers on your network and the amount of WINS traffic.

One recommended server-side option is to enable WINS lookup for each of your DNS zones where you are using Microsoft DNS servers. This allows the DNS servers to use WINS to look up names for clients and also to cache frequently requested WINS names. For more information about how to configure WINS lookup for DNS zones, see "WINS Lookup" in this chapter.

As a final step in decommissioning WINS, Windows 2000–based computers allow you to perform client-side configuration changes to disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. You only need do this where you want to prevent NetBIOS name query and registration traffic from being sent on the network at its source—that is, at each client computer. However, in most networks some limited use of WINS will remain necessary for the foreseeable future. Therefore, disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP is not recommended for most installations.

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