What Is Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)? How Does It Work?

What Is Windows Internet Name Service

What is Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)? Windows Internet Name Service or WINS is a Microsoft Windows service that dynamically registers the NetBIOS names of computers on a network.

Windows Internet Name Service provides a centralized mapping of NetBios names to IP addresses, much like DNS and hostnames. The WINS system consists of two parts, the server service that manages the central Jet database, replication, and client registration, and the TCP/IP client component that manages client registers and name server queries.

Windows Internet Name Service primarily supports clients running earlier versions of the Windows operating system and applications that require NetBIOS. Later versions of Windows, including Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 use Domain Name System (DNS) Names in addition to NetBIOS names.

If WINS is not already deployed on your network, do not deploy WINS. Instead, deploy DNS.

How Does Windows Internet Name Service Work

While the NetBlos is available for network protocols other than TCP/IP, WINS was specifically designed to support NetBIOS (NetBT) over TCP/IP. Since NetBIOS name resolution is the primary source of resolving names on legacy networks, the network needs a service that provides clients with the ability to resolve names to access resources via Loose without knowing the resource’s IP address.

Installing and maintaining a WINS server has the following advantages:

• Name resolution and name registration via dynamic database
• Centrally manage computer name databases and database replication policies
• No need to manage LMHOSTS files
• Reduce IP broadcasts on the LAN
• Ability to browse domains on the far side of the router without installing a local domain controller on the other side of the router.

Roles of Windows Internet Name Service Roles

When designing WINS for your network, you typically include multiple WINS servers to ensure that your clients have a reliable and highly available NetBIOS name resolution service. Each WINS server should be in push/pull replication.

When more than two WINS servers are required, the best practice replication model is the hub-and-spoke model, where one WINS server is considered the central server (hub),

The remaining WINS servers (spokes) are replicated through a single hub. This ensures that replication convergence is optimal so that all WINS servers maintain the same set of databases. Each WINS server holds all other related

A complete copy of the WINS system record. There is no hierarchy in WNS like in DNS. all WINS

Both clients should be configured to use a primary WINS server and a different secondary WINS server. wins client to pass DHCP scope options (044-WINS/NENS server and O4G-WINS/NBT point type) for dynamic configuration.

Tools of Windows Internet Name Service

The primary tools for administering WINS servers are the WINS console and Netsh WINS commands.

1. Netsh WINS Commands: You can type Netsh WINS commands in the Command Prompt window at netsh wins> Command Prompt, or you can execute Netsh WINS commands in batch files and other scripts. All features available in the WINS console are available at the netsh wins> command prompt.
2. WINS Console: When you install a WINS server running a Windows Server 2003 server operating system, the WINS Console is added to the Administrative Tools folder in Control Panel. The WINS console appears as a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to further integrate WINS management into your overall network administration.

How to Install Windows Internet Name Service

Perform the following steps to install the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)  role on a server running Windows Server Core.

1. Type Start PowerShell in the Command Prompt window to start Windows PowerShell.
2. Type Install-WindowsFeatureWINS and press Enter to install WINS.

Final Words

Here are the details about Windows Internet Name Service. I hope that this post can helpful to you.