Do clients need to be registered in DNS in a non-NETBIOS (WINS) environment

[Kenno1192]

I am conducting some research into removing WINS and NETBIOS from our
2K/AD environment and have gathered a lot of good information via posts
etc. but I am after a little more specific info which I am having
difficulty in finding.

To prelude my main question: In the NT world for clients to map drives
etc. via NETBIOS it is [was] necessary to have the server names in WINS
or some other NETBIOS resolution format - this is [was] particularly
relevant for servers in remote subnets. Without WINS or any NETBIOS
protocols whatsoever I would suspect that some other form of resolution
would have to be made available to the clients and that resolution
facility would be DNS (either static entries or dynamically updated).

All this makes sense without doing any "real world" testing but the
information I am more after is if the clients themselves need to be
registered in DNS (dynamically or otherwise). I have a feeling they do
because once a client makes a call to a server for a connection then
the server will chat back to the client using some resolution process.

Would much appreciate if you could correct me if I am wrong and/or
steer me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance
Kenno

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I am conducting some research into removing WINS and NETBIOS from our
2K/AD environment and have gathered a lot of good information via
posts etc. but I am after a little more specific info which I am
having difficulty in finding.

To prelude my main question: In the NT world for clients to map drives
etc. via NETBIOS it is [was] necessary to have the server names in
WINS or some other NETBIOS resolution format - this is [was]
particularly relevant for servers in remote subnets. Without WINS or
any NETBIOS protocols whatsoever I would suspect that some other form
of resolution would have to be made available to the clients and that
resolution facility would be DNS (either static entries or
dynamically updated).

All this makes sense without doing any "real world" testing but the
information I am more after is if the clients themselves need to be
registered in DNS (dynamically or otherwise). I have a feeling they do
because once a client makes a call to a server for a connection then
the server will chat back to the client using some resolution process.

Would much appreciate if you could correct me if I am wrong and/or
steer me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance
Kenno

With AD, you need DNS to work perfectly. And all clients have to
register/update themselves dynamically in DNS or you'd have to statically
create the entries. If everyone's pointing at your AD-integrated DNS server
as their only DNS server, as they should (or, to another internal DNS server
that supports dynamic updates), they should work. Servers and workstations
both need to be doing this. Don't use any non-internal DNS IP address in a
computer/server's LAN IP config. The local/internal DNS server itself should
answer all queries & use forwarders and/or root hints for external name
resolution.

What's the reason you want to get rid of NetBIOS & WINS, if I may ask? You
don't mean NetBEUI, I'm sure.... (which should not be used). There are a lot
of reasons to keep NetBIOS around - legacy apps, and even Exchange server
likes it... I tend to leave it there.