Name resolution problem - WINS to blame?

Strange issue on our network:

When I ping machine A, it responds with an IP address. However, it
turns out that machine A is offline, and another machine B is using
this IP address. When I ping machine B, I also get the same IP
address. So basically, whether I ping machine A or machine B, I get
the same IP address.

Needless to say, it's a problem. My network admins tell me that this
is because of WINS and how it stores the records, and there's nothing
they can do about it. The WINS interval settings are:

Renew interval: 6 days
Extinction interval: 4 days
Extinction timeout: 6 days
Verification interval: 24 days

Any ideas on what's going on here?

Our network environment:

Servers: Windows Server 2003
Client: Windows 2000, XP

DHCP enabled, Active Directory, Cisco switches, 2 WINS servers (1
primary, 1 secondary), WINS proxy disabled. Two DNS servers reside at
the same IP addresses as the WINS servers. DHCP lease: 4 hours.

There is no reason to run WINS if you're running WIN2K and above. What they
are referring to is tombstoning which was an issue in the NT4 days. You can
clear them through WINS Admin. (or you could in NT4).

"Andre" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Strange issue on our network:
>
> When I ping machine A, it responds with an IP address. However, it
> turns out that machine A is offline, and another machine B is using
> this IP address. When I ping machine B, I also get the same IP
> address. So basically, whether I ping machine A or machine B, I get
> the same IP address.
>
> Needless to say, it's a problem. My network admins tell me that this
> is because of WINS and how it stores the records, and there's nothing
> they can do about it. The WINS interval settings are:
>
> Renew interval: 6 days
> Extinction interval: 4 days
> Extinction timeout: 6 days
> Verification interval: 24 days
>
> Any ideas on what's going on here?
>
> Our network environment:
>
> Servers: Windows Server 2003
> Client: Windows 2000, XP
>
> DHCP enabled, Active Directory, Cisco switches, 2 WINS servers (1
> primary, 1 secondary), WINS proxy disabled. Two DNS servers reside at
> the same IP addresses as the WINS servers. DHCP lease: 4 hours.
>

I would increase DHCP lease time and check DNS servers 'cause the ping
command tries to resolve the names using DNS.

On 7/18/2005 09:42, Neteng wrote:
> There is no reason to run WINS if you're running WIN2K and above.

....except if you have multiple subnets and want to browse across them.


OP:
You can clear the NB cache on clients by doing nbtstat -R followed by
nbtstat -RR However, it's my understanding that 2k and XP clients will
query DNS first before resorting to WINS. That would point to a dynamic
registration problem in DNS.

~Jason

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