Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration

Troubleshooting WINS

Once it has been installed and configured correctly, WINS requires little routine maintenance, and is likely to have few problems. When WINS problems do occur, they are usually one of those described in the following sections. To resolve these problems, you must be logged on to the server as a member of the Administrators group.

Resolving Minor WINS Problems

When WINS problems do occur, they are usually minor and affect only one or a few clients. The following list describes four of the most common minor problems that might occur with WINS and how to resolve them:

Clients receive “network path not found” messages

This problem may occur in environments with a mix of h-node and b-node hosts, and in those with multiple WINS servers configured as replication partners. If this problem occurs, the first step is to look up the name in question in the WINS database. If the name does not exist, check to see if the destination host uses b-node. If so, you must enter a static mapping for the b-node host in the WINS database. If an entry for the destination host does exist in the local WINS database, but that host is connected to a subnet served by a different WINS server, then the most likely cause is that that host’s IP address is no longer the same as the value stored in the local WINS database. To resolve the problem, perform a push replication from the remote WINS server to the local WINS server to replicate the changed information to your local database.

WINS returns “duplicate ...