WINS not working on 98/Me client

[Ross]

I have a client network with a mixture of Windows
98/Me/2K/XP clients connecting to a Windows 2000 domain
controller.
All machines are configured to use DHCP to provide the
address of the WINS server on the network.
The WINS server is also the domain controller, DHCP
server and DNS server.
All Windows XP/2000 clients can resolve host names
correctly in approximately 1 second.
However the Windows 98/Me machines take more than 30
seconds to resolve host names to IP addresses.
However, if I manually configure the TCP/IP settings on a
98/Me machine NOT to use WINS, then the host names are
resolved very quickly.
I am completely stumped as it seems that these
workstations should work properly.
Does anyone have any idea about what could be causing
these workstations to take so long to resolve the host
names?
Thanks in advance,
Ross

 

[Herb Martin]

However the Windows 98/Me machines take more than 30

seconds to resolve host names to IP addresses.
However, if I manually configure the TCP/IP settings on a
98/Me machine NOT to use WINS, then the host names are
resolved very quickly.

That implies some type of timeout, or something, on a wrongly
addressed WINS server (configuration).

Does the client (IPConfig or the W9x equivalent WinIPCfg)
show the correct (and double check by ping etc.) address of
the WINS server?

What happens if the client is manually configured to that WINS
server?

Have you checked the WINS server to ensure all the expect entries
are included?

You do have all the servers, especially the WINS Server (itself a DC)
as CLIENTS of the WINS server, don't you?

Many people forget to make the servers, including WINS server, a
WINS client and therefore no registration happens causing the clients
to be unable to resolve that server.

Servers are name resolution (DNS, WINS) CLIENTS too.

 

[Ross]

Hi Herb,

Yes, I checked all of those.

There are entries in the WINS database for all
workstations and servers that I was testing. The servers
were originally NOT configured as WINS clients, but I
reconfigured them and restarted all servers and test
workstations. So there are now entries in the WINS
database for all servers and workstations.

WINS is being used for name resolution - according to the
NTBSTAT - r command all name resolution is occuring via
WINS. It is just taking 30 seconds or more to achieve it.

It doesn't improve if I manually configure the
workstations to use WINS rather than getting the settings
from DHCP.

Pinging the IP address of the WINS server returns sub
10ms response times so there doesn't seem to be any
connectivity issue.

If I manually configure TCP/IP on a client such that it
DOES NOT have a WINS entry, name resolution works fine -
sub second and NBTSTAT -r reports that all names are
resolved by broadcast.

The network is quite small and the LAN is on one subnet,
so there is no routing to consider either.

There is only one WINS server on the network as well.

I am still at a loss.

Ross

 

[Herb Martin]

If I manually configure TCP/IP on a client such that it

DOES NOT have a WINS entry, name resolution works fine -
sub second and NBTSTAT -r reports that all names are
resolved by broadcast.

If you only have a single subnet, then broadcasts will work just find.
Of course, that doesn't explain why WINS is taking so long.

If you cannot locate the problem (and have only one subnet) just
remove ALL the WINS entries and do without.

You only need WINS if you have routed IP -- or a WHOLE LOT
of stations on a single subnet.

The network is quite small and the LAN is on one subnet,
so there is no routing to consider either.

Dump WINS then. Doesn't answer "the problem" but will fix it just
fine.

There is only one WINS server on the network as well.

Of course, if you add another subnet (say wireless) in the future you
will be back trying to solve this problem.