Get rid of WINS/NETBIOS

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I have an all Win2K/Win2K3/WinXP network. Can I get rid of WINS and use DNS
for all name resolution? Is there any documentation of how to do this?
 
You are not using WINS unless you've set up a WINS server, which is not necessary
in the environment you describe.

Removing NetBIOS has never been a design goal of Windows.

Steve Riley
(e-mail address removed)
 
Possibly. If you no downlevel clients in the domain, do not have trusts with
downlevel domains, do not have any applications that rely on netbios name
resolution, no longer want to use My Network Places to browse for and
locate domain resources, and some others [I think Exchange may also use it]
then you might be able to disable NBT. After that you would need to use
Active Directory exclusively to search for shares/printers that you have
published in Active Directory. If you are already using wins, then your
network broadcasts are minimized for using the browse list and netbios name
resolution and any gain you obtain from removing it will more than likely be
minimal with the risk of breaking something. Anyhow you disable NBT in the
tcp/ip properties in advanced/wins and for DHCP clients there is a scope
option that can disable it. The link below may help. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299977
 
Peter M said:
I have an all Win2K/Win2K3/WinXP network. Can I get rid of WINS and use DNS
for all name resolution? Is there any documentation of how to do this?
Click to expand...

You cannot eliminate NetBIOS comfortable in
most any Windows networks.

NetBIOS resolution in multiple IP subnets virtually
requires WINS Server(s).

If you have only one (internal) subnet, you probably
don't need WINS.

If you have more, you almost certainly do.

NetBIOS is still embedded in a dozen or so (known)
places) including browsing support and external trusts
(but there are more and it hurt little if you do it right.)
 
Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I have (2) WINS servers (DCs) because I started
with NT4 and Exch5.5 but have migrated to a native AD environment. I'm
trying to decide if I can do without WINS. I ask this question every so
often and I almost always get the answer that getting rid of WINS is more
trouble than worth.

However at the moment, browsing across subnets appears broken and I'm not
sure how to fix it. One application appears to have broken as well.

-Peter
 
I have no downlevel clients, and no trusts. I have at least one
netbios-dependent app (at the moment broken because something in NB
resolution across subnets is broken). No one appears to be noticing/worried
about the My Network Places not working across subnets. Exchange 2003
appears fine. Not talking about disabling netbios, but turining off wins
servers.

Thanks again,

-Peter

Steven L Umbach said:
Possibly. If you no downlevel clients in the domain, do not have trusts with
downlevel domains, do not have any applications that rely on netbios name
resolution, no longer want to use My Network Places to browse for and
locate domain resources, and some others [I think Exchange may also use it]
then you might be able to disable NBT. After that you would need to use
Active Directory exclusively to search for shares/printers that you have
published in Active Directory. If you are already using wins, then your
network broadcasts are minimized for using the browse list and netbios name
resolution and any gain you obtain from removing it will more than likely be
minimal with the risk of breaking something. Anyhow you disable NBT in the
tcp/ip properties in advanced/wins and for DHCP clients there is a scope
option that can disable it. The link below may help. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299977

Peter M said:
I have an all Win2K/Win2K3/WinXP network. Can I get rid of WINS and use
DNS
for all name resolution? Is there any documentation of how to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks.

Herb Martin said:
You cannot eliminate NetBIOS comfortable in
most any Windows networks.

NetBIOS resolution in multiple IP subnets virtually
requires WINS Server(s).

If you have only one (internal) subnet, you probably
don't need WINS.

If you have more, you almost certainly do.

NetBIOS is still embedded in a dozen or so (known)
places) including browsing support and external trusts
(but there are more and it hurt little if you do it right.)
Click to expand...
 
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