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Windows Internet Name Service

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista

Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) provides a distributed database that maps network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) names to IP addresses and was designed to solve the problems arising from NetBIOS name resolution in routed environments.

NetBIOS names are a requirement for establishing networking services in earlier versions of Microsoft operating systems. Although the NetBIOS naming protocol can be used with network protocols other than TCP/IP, WINS was designed specifically to support NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT).

Product Help

WINS Product Help (Windows Server 2003)

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=49770

The documentation for WINS has not been updated for Windows Server 2008. Aside from some software engineering changes that make WINS less vulnerable to malicious attack, WINS functionality has not changed from that available in Windows Server 2003.