Clarification on WINS/DNS issue

JebediahSpringfield

Hi all. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me in clarifying a DNS issue relevant to my studies for 70-291.

I read somewhere that the name resolution process a client configured for WINS will use to resolve a hostname to an IP address is the following ordered list.

local cache
WINS
Broadcast
Lmhosts file
Hosts file
DNS

(Mnemonic = Can We Buy Large Hard Drives)

However, I also read that a client in a windows 2003 active directory domain will always prefer DNS over WINS.

I'm confused. Help!

royal

http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/windows/wintcp/wtcpname.html

The netbios ones are for legacy clients such as NT4, 95, 98, etc... They will use Netbios first since their operating systems are most dependent on Netbios. If Netbios fails, DNS will be used. For 2000 and above clients, the opposite is mostly true. DNS will be used first and then if that fails, netbios will be used. Depending on your conifguration (b-node, h-node, m-mode, or p-node), wins may or may not be used.


Legacy Operating Systems (this link shows netbios being used first and dns being used last:
http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/155/06/2.html



http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/26aa93c2-4d61-4476-9eb9-7e6b5ecd2f431033.mspx?mfr=true

Name Resolution Scenarios

DNS is the name resolution service of Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Windows clients use DNS for name resolution and service location, including locating Active Directory domain controllers for logon. Pre-Active Directory clients (Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, and Windows 9, however, rely on NetBIOS, which can use WINS, broadcast, or flat Lmhosts file. In particular, WINS is used by Pre-Active Directory clients for domain controller location. Windows NT 4.0-based clients can register themselves in Windows Server 2003 WINS. Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 clients can register in Windows NT 4.0 WINS.

The DNS implementation in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 is WINS-aware, and, as a result, a combination of both DNS and WINS is typically used to achieve maximum efficiency in locating various network resources in a mixed environment.