On 7/8/2010 2:12 PM, Craig White wrote: > >> I thought the point of WINS was to have a single address that would >> collate the names/addresses from all your networks. >> >>> The important thing is to get the WINS working on EACH network. It's >>> also easiest to have your PDC be the WINS server - period. >> >> But PDC's aren't limited to one subnet either. > ---- > WINS is a broadcast based protocol and thus it only works on the local > network and each subnet/network MUST necessarily have master browser > elections. The WINS server on each subnet would serve as a clearing > house for name resolution for each subnet/network. That is clearly not > working for him just from that error message. Errr, no. WINS is a server at a specified and routable IP address where the subnet master browsers send their lists periodically. Normally you'd have your DHCP server hand out the wins server address and manually configure it on machines with static IPs. The point of using WINS is to have one server that knows all of your windows name/address mappings. > Samba machines are not limited to one subnet either by multiple network > addresses or via routers but their ability to identify their presence on > other subnets/networks is limited at best (remote announce). > > The concept was that computers just find each other on a subnet via > network browsing. When you have a server involved, you want to 'rig' the > browser elections so you have entirely predictable location for > retrieving the current workgroup members instead of the haphazard method > employed by default. This means you put a WINS server on each subnet and > specifically instruct each client (whether a Windows workstation or a > samba server) to specifically interrogate that WINS server for the > latest browse list. You are partly right there, but you really want to end up with one server that knows all the names, not a separate incomplete set on every subnet. How do you manage VPN connections that might be point-to-point with nothing else on the same subnet at all? -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com