Excessive NetBios traffic

[Jerry]

Hello, I'm seeing LOTS of netbios traffic on my network.
I have 95% W2K clients and the 9x clients do not use print
& file sharing. In fact only select computer labs use
print and file sharing.

I did have a WINS server setup but I set the clients not
to use WINS. I shut the WINS server down after seeing
that is was not being used.

Should I turn my WINS server back on and enable the
clients to use WINS? The only thing that I can think of
that could be causing the netbios traffic is the Windows
Browser Service which builds lists for network
neighborhood. Will WINS help reduce this type of
traffic? Any WINS best practices? I really didn't think
I needed WINS in a DNS type of network.

Thanks

 

[Herb Martin]

Hello, I'm seeing LOTS of netbios traffic on my network.

I have 95% W2K clients and the 9x clients do not use print
& file sharing. In fact only select computer labs use
print and file sharing.

What's excessive?

I did have a WINS server setup but I set the clients not
to use WINS. I shut the WINS server down after seeing
that is was not being used.

Why did you set the clients to avoid the WINS server? WINS
is a way to make NetBIOS traffic more efficient.

Should I turn my WINS server back on and enable the
clients to use WINS? The only thing that I can think of
Yes.

that could be causing the netbios traffic is the Windows
Browser Service which builds lists for network
neighborhood. Will WINS help reduce this type of
traffic? Any WINS best practices? I really didn't think
I needed WINS in a DNS type of network.

Yes.

Make sure that EVERY machine -- DCs, servers, even the WINS
server itself-- is a WINS client.

Many people overlook making the servers WINS clients and so
because they are not registered the benefits of WINS are (largely)
lost.