Do I or do I not need a WINS server? :)

[Jim]

Hi,

I have two locations linked by a VPN with two domain controllers at one
and one domain controller at the other. All servers on the network are
2003 except a single 2000, and all clients are XP.

Do I need a WINS server? I don't have one at the moment. Is there an
advantage to having one - reduced traffic, speed? Disadvantage - more
traffic?

Thanks
--

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Jim <hoo.me@some.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have two locations linked by a VPN with two domain controllers at
> one and one domain controller at the other. All servers on the
> network are 2003 except a single 2000, and all clients are XP.
>
> Do I need a WINS server? I don't have one at the moment. Is there an
> advantage to having one - reduced traffic, speed? Disadvantage - more
> traffic?
>
> Thanks


AD uses DNS. There are certain circumstances wherein Exchange likes to have
WINS, but you probably don't fit that category. Browsing still uses NetBIOS.
..
If you want to browse, use WINS. If you don't care about browsing,
particularly across the VPN tunnel, you don't need WINS but you should
probably disble NetBIOS over TCP/IP on all your machines then, to reduce
traffic.

I personally still use WINS because I find "network neighborhood" browsing
handy.

[Jim]

Thanks for the rapid reply. In fact I think we use browsing quite a
lot, so looks like I should set one up. Should I have a WINS server at
each site or would one suffice?
--



Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

> Jim <hoo.me@some.net> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have two locations linked by a VPN with two domain controllers at
> > one and one domain controller at the other. All servers on the
> > network are 2003 except a single 2000, and all clients are XP.
> >
> > Do I need a WINS server? I don't have one at the moment. Is there an
> > advantage to having one - reduced traffic, speed? Disadvantage -
> > more traffic?
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
> AD uses DNS. There are certain circumstances wherein Exchange likes
> to have WINS, but you probably don't fit that category. Browsing
> still uses NetBIOS. . If you want to browse, use WINS. If you don't
> care about browsing, particularly across the VPN tunnel, you don't
> need WINS but you should probably disble NetBIOS over TCP/IP on all
> your machines then, to reduce traffic.
>
> I personally still use WINS because I find "network neighborhood"
> browsing handy.

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Jim <hoo.me@some.net> wrote:
> Thanks for the rapid reply. In fact I think we use browsing quite a
> lot, so looks like I should set one up. Should I have a WINS server at
> each site or would one suffice?

If you have a DC in each site, have a WINS server at each site, with
push/pull replication.

>
>> Jim <hoo.me@some.net> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have two locations linked by a VPN with two domain controllers at
>>> one and one domain controller at the other. All servers on the
>>> network are 2003 except a single 2000, and all clients are XP.
>>>
>>> Do I need a WINS server? I don't have one at the moment. Is there an
>>> advantage to having one - reduced traffic, speed? Disadvantage -
>>> more traffic?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>
>>
>> AD uses DNS. There are certain circumstances wherein Exchange likes
>> to have WINS, but you probably don't fit that category. Browsing
>> still uses NetBIOS. . If you want to browse, use WINS. If you don't
>> care about browsing, particularly across the VPN tunnel, you don't
>> need WINS but you should probably disble NetBIOS over TCP/IP on all
>> your machines then, to reduce traffic.
>>
>> I personally still use WINS because I find "network neighborhood"
>> browsing handy.

[Thorsten Kampe]

* Jim (Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:54:18 -0800)
> I have two locations linked by a VPN with two domain controllers at
> one and one domain controller at the other. All servers on the
> network are 2003 except a single 2000, and all clients are XP.
>
> Do I need a WINS server?

No

> I don't have one at the moment. Is there an advantage to having one
> - reduced traffic, speed?

Yes and yes

> Disadvantage - more
> traffic?

No.

If you use NetBIOS you should also use WINS minimize broadcasts.

By the way: your question is not Active Directory related and should
go to the networking group.

Thorsten

[jim]

Thanks for the input. It is only AD related in the sense that I wanted
to know if WINS was necessary for AD