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Windows Internet Name Service

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Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is Microsoft's implementation of NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS), a name server and service for NetBIOS computer names. Effectively, WINS is to NetBIOS names what DNS is to domain names — a central mapping of host names to network addresses. Like the DNS, it is implemented in two parts, a server service (that manages the embedded Jet Database, server to server replication, service requests, and conflicts) and a TCP/IP client component which manages the client's registration and renewal of names, and takes care of queries. Basically, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is a legacy computer name registration and resolution service that maps computer NetBIOS names to IP addresses.

This is the predecessor to DNS and yet has not been deprecated according by Microsoft.[1]

References

  • Official sources:
  • Other:
    • Name Resolution chapter in Using Samba online book (also published by O'Reilly as ISBN 0-596-00256-4), which talks about WINS.