Microsoft WINS Clients

To configure WINS clients with the IP address of one or more WINS servers, open Network and Dial-up Connections and click Local Area Connections. Click the Properties button, select the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties entry in the list, and click Properties, then click Advanced and select the WINS Address tab. Figure 7.1 illustrates this configuration page.

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Figure 7.1 WINS Service on a Windows 2000 Client

NetBIOS names are linked to the various network services that each client computer can use with other computers on the network.

Microsoft supports WINS clients on the following platforms:

• Windows 2000
• Windows NT Server
• Windows NT Workstation
• Windows 98
• Windows 95
• Windows for Workgroups
• LAN Manager 2.x

A WINS-enabled client communicates with the WINS server to:

• Register in the WINS database NetBIOS names of processes running on the client.
• Release from the WINS database the NetBIOS names of processes that are no longer running on the client.
• Renew client names in the WINS database.
• Resolve names by obtaining mappings for user names, NetBIOS names, DNS names, and IP addresses from the WINS database.

Clients that are not configured to use WINS can participate in these processes to a limited extent, but they must use WINS proxy agents to do so. For more information about proxy agents, see "Microsoft WINS Proxy" in this chapter. Each of the other tasks performed by a WINS client is described in this section.

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