How extensive is the use of Microsoft WINS nameservice these days?
A lot of these answers are only partially true or just plain wrong. WINS is just another way to resolve names to ip addresses. As long as your applications know how to use DNS, WINS is not needed at all.
Edit: Okay, I can't believe how much misinformation there is on this thread. First of all, having different subnets does not necessitate the use of WINS. As long as your application can communicate with udp/tcp port 53 on your DNS server(s), you will be able to resolve hostnames just fine (yes, \\hostname will work too).
Secondly, if you're wondering why you can't resolve anything using the short hostname (i.e. just the hostname without the domain), it's probably because you never configured the default domain (or domain search list) on your clients.
And lastly (but not leastly!), an Active Directory domain is not a prerequisite for using DNS on a Windows network. The only reason you think that is because when you join a machine to a domain, Windows sets the default domain name for you. There is nothing preventing you from setting it yourself through other means (probably DHCP).
So in summary, just set the default domain and use DNS like the rest of us here in the 21st century!
wins is still required for a bunch of things (less and less every day!). The most common example I've seen is that wins is a requirement for running exchange 2007 on clustered 2003 servers. Wins works with Netbios names. A NetBIOS name is an identifier used by NetBIOS services running on a computer. It is combination of a 15 character (byte) name and a 16th character denoting the service. When identifying NetBIOS network resources, these names are used. NetBIOS can not do name resolution on the Internet. NetBIOS names are single part names and don't have any hierarchical structure.
The NetBIOS namespace is flat, which means that there are no suffixes added to the NetBIOS name and that two computers cannot have the same NetBIOS name. This means that each NetBIOS name in any one network must be unique.
See TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows ,Chapter 11 - NetBIOS over TCP/IP
In our Enterprise it is still required for many legacy applications.
Felt I needed to edit this since the most upvoted answer is flat out WRONG!
WINS is definitely required in many oraganizations these days.
How WINS works Updated: January 21, 2005
How WINS works By default, when a computer running Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows XP, or a Windows Server 2003 operating system is configured with WINS server addresses (either manually or through DHCP) for its name resolution, it uses hybrid node (h-node) as its node type for NetBIOS name registration unless another NetBIOS node type is configured. For NetBIOS name query and resolution, it also uses h-node behavior, but with a few differences.
For NetBIOS name resolution, a WINS client typically performs the following general sequence of steps to resolve a name:
Client checks to see if the name queried is its local NetBIOS computer name, which it owns.
Client checks its local NetBIOS name cache of remote names. Any name resolved for a remote client is placed in this cache where it remains for 10 minutes.
Client forwards the NetBIOS query to its configured primary WINS server. If the primary WINS server fails to answer the query--either because it is not available or because it does not have an entry for the name--the client will try to contact other configured WINS servers in the order they are listed and configured for its use.
Client broadcasts the NetBIOS query to the local subnet.
Client checks the Lmhosts file for a match to the query, if it is configured to use the Lmhosts file.
Client tries the Hosts file and then a DNS server, if it is configured for one.
The problem is that not every application can be configured to use DNS.
Even in Microsofts own explination of Active Directory setup it mentions the need for WINS.
Settup Up DNS
"NetBIOS name resolution (WINS server, LMHosts file, or NetBIOS broadcast) is still required for earlier versions of Windows to resolve network resources on an Active Directory domain."
So yes, there are SOME organizations that can get away without using WINS, but to make a blanket statement that if you can hit the DNS server you magically do not need WINS is wrong.
WINS is still very much a requirement, despite every attempt by every Windows admin in the world to bludgeon it to death. Anytime there is a separation of subnets, you're going to need WINS. Running a VPN for separate sites? That implies a subnet - and WINS. Have older clients that don't understand AD? You need WINS. Have a DOS application that you're networking? WINS again.
WINS is also used for populating browse lists. While Active Directory based machines can work without WINS, there can be a delay as the browse lists are populated in the following sequence:
- NetBIOS Remote Name Cache
- WINS
- Broadcast
- LMHOSTS
- HOSTS
- DNS
The crux of the problem stems from the roots of LANMAN, which begat SMB, which begat CIFS...you can see where this is going. LANMAN was very much a LAN-based protocol - it had no concept of "Internet", much less "routing". WINS was developed to bridge that gap and make routing possible. Fast-forward to the present, and CIFS still has some backwards-compatible support for LANMAN in it. UNC path names may be "modern", but they will still attach to a LANMAN server. Then there's the whole "browse list" thing...
MS is very close to getting out of the WINS server biz but there are just too many "legacy" hooks, not only in the OS, but in applications and services as well, that require a WINS server. And as long as there is support for LANMAN-style transmissions, there will be a need to have a WINS server around.
EDIT:
Yes, you can turn off WINS in a flat domain.
However...
- Try that in a domain that has abc.xyz.com and abc.123.com as child domains. Can you say "browse list fun" three times fast?
- Try that with Exchange 2007 in some cases.
- Try that when you have servers that exist outside of your subnet and are traversing a firewall. Somehow, there just seems to be trouble with those browse lists...
As much as I want to see this service have a stake driven through its heart, it's not going to go away until Microsoft comes 'round and revamps how they do LAN services. (Yes, there is a comment at that link about how it's not needed as well...but go read through what's being said by the horse's mouth...)
Lets not get confused between wins and netbios..... you can run netbios on a network without a WINS server, but it's not recommended on a domain. You don't really want all those funky elections going on when you have a proper DNS server on the network, so netbios should either be disabled or a WINS server should be used. (I use proper in the loosest sense of the term where MS DNS is concerned :-) )
Recently I had a problem with Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008 requiring netbios to be enabled. unbelievable!!!