Share via

Troubleshooting WINS servers

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 8 Beta

Troubleshooting WINS servers

What problem are you having?

  • Unable to send and receive data.

  • The server intermittently loses its ability to resolve names.

Unable to send and receive data.

Cause:  Configuration details might be incorrect or missing.

Solution:  To help prevent the most common types of problems, review WINS best practices for deploying and managing your WINS servers. Most WINS-related problems start as failed queries at a client, so it is best to start there.

See also:  WINS Best Practices; Troubleshooting WINS clients

Cause:  The WINS server might not be able to service the client.

Solution:  At the primary or secondary WINS server for the client that cannot locate a name, use Event Viewer or the WINS console to see if WINS is started and currently running. If WINS is running on the server, search for the name previously requested by the client to see if it is in the WINS server database.

See also:  Search for names that begin with a specified set of characters

Cause:  WINS server is failing or registering database corruption errors.

Solution:  Use WINS database recovery techniques to help restore WINS operations.

See also:  Troubleshooting WINS databases

Cause:  The name does not appear in the server database.

Solution:  Check whether replication is configured correctly and is operational between your WINS servers.

See also:  Troubleshooting WINS replication

Cause:  The WINS server answering clients might be returning stale or incorrect information to clients. The WINS server might be affected by a static mapping blocking the dynamic registration of a valid name-to-address mapping for the computer hosting the service or resource in question.

Solution:  In general, static mappings are not recommended for clients that can dynamically use WINS to update their name and address information. If the information returned to a client during name resolution is incorrect or stale, check to see if the name entry in the WINS server database was entered statically. If the name was entered using a static type entry, you can choose from the following options to update WINS:

  • Enable Migrate (Overwrite unique static record with dynamic record) in Replication Partners Properties.

  • Edit the static mapping to update the mapped address information.

  • Delete the static entry from WINS.

See also:  Enable static mappings to be overwritten during replication; Edit a static mapping entry; Delete or tombstone an entry in the WINS database

Cause:  Replication might not be occurring between all WINS servers.

Solution:  In some WINS designs, the use of one-way replication partnerships, such as push-only or pull-only partners, can create situations where WINS names data is not regularly replicated to all network servers.

See also: Troubleshooting WINS replication

The server intermittently loses its ability to resolve names.

Cause:  There might be a split registration problem, where the WINS server is registering its names in WINS at two servers on the network. This is possible when the WINS server settings configured in TCP/IP properties at the server computer are pointing to IP address of remote WINS servers and are not configured to use the IP address of the local WINS server.

Solution:  Re-configure client TCP/IP properties at the WINS server to have its primary and secondary WINS servers point to the IP address of the local server computer.

See also:  Configure TCP/IP to use WINS; WINS Best Practices