WINS is an enhanced NetBIOS Name Server (NBNS) designed by Microsoft to eliminate broadcast traffic associated with the b-node implementation of NetBIOS over TCP/IP. It is used to register NetBIOS names and resolve them to IP addresses for both local and remote hosts. WINS also effectively promotes overall resolution speed (i.e. faster browsing from your computer to others).
WINS gives Windows devices that use TCP/IP a way to
resolve simple machine names to IP addresses. But WINS also provides the NetBIOS
functions associated with that machine name. WINS accomplishes this resolution
through the use of the 16th-byte value. The 16th-byte value is, as its name
implies, a byte of information that WINS tacks on to the end of every NetBIOS
machine name in your Windows environment. This placement means that Windows
machine names cannot exceed 15 bytes, and the 16th byte is reserved for this
special value. You don't ordinarily see the 16th-byte value when you refer to
Windows machines by name. However, you can see evidence of the 16th byte if you
open up a command shell on your computer and type the command:
Before two NetBIOS-based hosts can communicate, the destination NetBIOS name must be resolved to an IP address. This is necessary because TCP/IP requires an IP address to communicate. It cannot establish communication using a NetBIOS computer name.
1. In a WINS environment, each time a WINS client starts, it registers its NetBIOS names and its IP address with a WINS server.
2. When a WINS client initiates a Windows NT command to communicate with another NetBIOS name (such as the NET USE command), the NetBIOS name query request is sent directly to the WINS server instead of broadcasting it on the local network.
3.
If the WINS server finds an IP address associated with the requested
NetBIOS name in its database, it returns the IP address to the WINS client.
Because the WINS database obtains NetBIOS name/IP address mappings dynamically,
it is always current.
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)