Odd WINS issue

[PeteyBoy23]

Hey all,
We are using a piece of software that adds a machine name from a source machine, to the target. So, the target machine has two Netbios names. See the result of a nbtstat -n from the target machine below:

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
EMSNY-DT01 <00> UNIQUE Registered
EXCHANGE <00> GROUP Registered
EXCHANGE <1E> GROUP Registered
EMSNY-DT01 <20> UNIQUE Registered
EXCHANGE <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered
msxnyrestore <00> UNIQUE Registered
msxnyrestore <03> UNIQUE Registered
MSXNYRESTORE <20> UNIQUE Registered

Now, we have Windows NT 4.0 WINS servers. Once the new Netbios name is added, the machine makes a WINS registration for both names. The WINS server accepts it, we just can't ping the machine by the lower case Netbios name. It comes up as "Unknown host", meaning there is no entry in WINS, even though there is. I was wondering if anyone else had this kind of issue before.

I would really appreciate anyone's help in this matter. Thank you so much.

[Jeffbx]

Sounds like you might want to be doing this from DNS, not WINS.

If you want to ping by both names, then you would make two DNS entries pointing to the same IP address. I've never heard of a machine having 2 netbios names, but it's pretty common to have a bunch of DNS entries to the same machine.

If you don't have an internal DNS server, you might have to make an entry in everyone's HOSTS file.

[PeteyBoy23]

Perhaps I should have been more clear. Please don't take my response as being rude, I'm just simply stating facts here.

I'm not looking for alternative means to get this to work, I need name registration via WINS to work. The product I am using None of your proposed solutions would be viable in this environment.

Because:
- We don't have win2k's dynamic dns in use
- We need dynamic host resolution, not static
- WINS is the only thing that will provide this in our current setup.

Thanks for posting.

[Jeffbx]

Fair enough...

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? I mean, what necessitates having this setup?

[PeteyBoy23]

It's simply how it has to be done. This is how it works.

It is part of a disaster recovery (DR) system we are testing, which will be put in place shortly. In a DR situation, the failover process takes the host name from the source (failed), and adds it to the target (running) machine. This enables us to use the target machine just as we used the source machine.

The problem is this WINS crap, hanging me up. I don't know why this is happening, and I can't find any answers anywhere.

So, to those of you reading this. If you are skilled, and think you have the answer, please relay it on. If you are guessing, don't bother. I can take guesses all day. I need answers, and ones based on some kind of substatiating data.

Again, thanks all.

[GilbertsGrape]

Originally posted by PeteyBoy23
It's simply how it has to be done. This is how it works.

It is part of a disaster recovery (DR) system we are testing, which will be put in place shortly. In a DR situation, the failover process takes the host name from the source (failed), and adds it to the target (running) machine. This enables us to use the target machine just as we used the source machine.

The problem is this WINS crap, hanging me up. I don't know why this is happening, and I can't find any answers anywhere.

So, to those of you reading this. If you are skilled, and think you have the answer, please relay it on. If you are guessing, don't bother. I can take guesses all day. I need answers, and ones based on some kind of substatiating data.

Again, thanks all.


Grumpy arnt we..... /me things someone has too much stress in their life/

[Hoser]

You could always consult a professional consulting group for your answer, like http://www.walkerproconsulting.com/

[PeteyBoy23]

Look, I'm really sorry to sound grumpy. It's not stress, or anything, it's just the types of replies being seen. All too often I see posts like this, with replies that don't answer the question(s) asked. Either that, or they just simply take guesses. I don't come to you guys for guesses, I come for educated answers, because I think that some of you know this area.

Say if I said "I want to overclock my p4 to xxxGhz" or the like, and the response was "Get an Athlon, they do XYZ better". It obviously doesn't answer the question, and it defeats the purpose of posting a response at all. If you have a particular setup that you are "stuck" with, you sometimes can't just rearrage things mid-stream to suit what works better.

I appreciate that Jeffbx took the time to not only read my post, but to offer to help. I really do, and I thank him.

The problem is I am talking WINS, and he is talking DNS, and HOSTS files. Apples and oranges. HOSTS files are administrative headaches for more than a couple dozen users (I have thousands). I can understand if I said "How else can I accomplish XYZ?", but I didn't. I have a very specific problem, that needs a specific answer.

I hope I don't still sound grumpy (although I'm thinking I do, I really don't mean to come off that way), and I hope you guys understand where I'm coming from.

Thanks for the responses (and the jabs at me, ya bastids!) :D

[Jeffbx]

That's a pretty specific problem you've got there... I'm assuming that you're still running an NT4 domain?

The reason I suggested DNS is that you can easily do what you're talking about w/DNS, especially if you're talking about failover for disaster recovery. However, apparently this is not a solution for you.

I'd suggest making a posting in the newsgroup microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain or microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc.

If you have access thru MSDN, microsoft.private.directaccess.windowsnt would be even better.

Good luck!

[PeteyBoy23]

Yep, unfortunately I'm stuck with an NT4 domain. I'll be sure to post to those newsgroups, I just need a good way to access them from here. For some reason they don't want to load on my machine. Figures, right? :D

Thanks again, Jeff.

[Hoser]

Maybe this link may help: http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/netadmin/0,39006400,39092888,00.htm