Franke, my network is using star topology connected with switch to a
router , around 30 users. Just installed wins server recently, but not
all user using it. Internet connection using NAT.
Ok, that tells a bit more. My guess is that because not all hosts are
using WINS for netbios name resolution (nbnr) there are at least two
nbnr methods working concurrently. It would be a good idea to let
either all stations use WINS or none. Especially if you didn't assign
static IP adresses there will be a lot of traffic since the hosts have
to verify that their netbios cache entries are still valid. Even the
WINS server if it works dynamically and not based on a static list
will have to ceck requently if its table is still up-to-date. Thus
every non-WINS host and the WINS server frequently ask around like
this:
"Hey, <IP-address> is your name still <hostname>?
No?
What is your hostname right now?"
and that they do for every IP address they remember.
Imagine a room where everyone calls out such questions simultaneously.
Ok, since you have a switch the analogy would be a city where everyone
needs to call every number of his telephone register to see if the
number for that name is still valid, while the employees of an
information service do the same. You can imagine that sometimes you
won't get a connection, since there is no such thing as a conferencing
session implemented.
Add your non-WINS hosts to your WINS set the update timer of WINS and
DHCP (lease time eg. 30 days) to a somewhat higher value or if you
dont use DHCP, create a lmhosts file that maps all IPs to the
corresponding netbios names. Put a copy of that file on every host
(Just put it where the lmhosts.sam file is found. The lmhost.sam is a
sample file to show you how it works.)
To verify what I said, get a copy of "ethereal" and sniff around a bit
to see what traffic runs trhough your network.
regards
André
PS: My name is André Franke, where Franke is the last name. Just in
case you missed that.
