Many people assume that NetBIOS name resolution is no longer necessary in Windows 2000 due to the heightened importance of DNS as the primary name resolution facility in the OS. Although Microsoft is certainly moving away from a reliance on NetBIOS as a network protocol, you simply cannot ignore the fact that programs exist that rely on NetBIOS. Yes, Windows 2000 does support resolving NetBIOS names in a variety of ways, including the use of DNS and related hostname-resolution techniques, but this is not necessarily efficient. Since so many products still use NetBIOS as their primary protocol, and since so many networks now run TCP/IP, it is still a good idea to run WINS on the network. If nothing else, it is impractical not to have it for the purpose of supporting downlevel clients such as Windows NT and Windows 98, who complete many important processes (such as logon) via NetBIOS.
A NetBIOS name is a 16-byte address that uniquely identifies a host on the network. This address is 15 characters long, with a 16th character that uniquely identifies a service that the system is running, such as the Server or Workstation services. A NetBIOS name is often referred to as a Computer name, although the line is blurring as Windows 2000 moves to a more integrated support of TCP/IP and DNS naming. Don’t forget that the purpose of WINS is mainly to resolve NetBIOS names to IP addresses. In the past, NetBIOS was the primary communication protocol used on Microsoft networks. The move to TCP/IP as the primary transport of choice has necessitated the ability to map NetBIOS names to IP addresses, and the ability to ‘piggyback’ NetBIOS over TCP/IP. However, WINS is not the only way to resolve these names to IP addresses. The official NetBIOS name resolution techniques in Windows 2000 include:
Local Broadcast – In this traditional method, a host will broadcast onto the local subnet trying to find the IP address associated with a given name. Obviously this method is restrictive, since it is limited in terms of reach on the network (as well as being inefficient)
NetBIOS Name Server – In most networks, a NetBIOS name server (such as WINS) is set up to handle name registration and queries directly. Clients systems (and servers) register their NetBIOS name to IP address mapping with WINS. When queried by a client, the NetBIOS name server replies with the requested IP address associated with the requested name.
NetBIOS Name Cache – Upon resolving a NetBIOS name to an IP address, the client stores this information in its NetBIOS name cache. By default, entries remain in cache for 600 seconds, and the cache holds only 16 names (configurable via the Registry). This makes the network more efficient, in that a client does not need to contact the network for every name resolution request. The reason for the low timeout is the fact that IP addresses may change due to the use of DHCP on the network. To view the NetBIOS name cache, use the nbtstat –c command.
LMHOSTS – This text file products a static way of mappings host names to IP addresses. A deeper look at LMHOSTS files follows later in this section.
