Multiple WINS Servers Enhancement

[Tim Potter]

Christopher R. Hertel writes:

> > I even think that it would even be nice if there was a wins
> > nsswitch library available so that UNIX systems could use
> > WINS to resolve hostnames.  This would make indentifying
> > Windows clients easier in alot of cases (but, that's a
> > different issue).
> 
> It is also a very, very ugly issue.  The NetBIOS namespace is *not* the
> same as the DNS namespace.  The mapping you propose may work across a
> small LAN, but it's a really, really bad idea on larger networks.  It's
> also very dangerous if your DNS is part of the real-world DNS
> hierarchy.  It is fairly easy to pollute a WINS database.  Then there
> are also the issues of group names, name collisions, scope (both in the
> RFC sense and not) etc.
> 
> Bottom line:  The NetBIOS name space should *not* be allowed to pollute
> the DNS namespace.  If you want a mapping, the DNS should be
> authoritative as it *is* the authoritative Internet naming mechanism.
> I still think it's a misleading kludge, but a NetBIOS name query going
> to the DNS doesn't mess up the DNS.  A DNS query going to WINS...
> Ick.

Yeah well that's true, but it's not really a DNS query but a host
lookup query.  Anyway, you can always configure nsswitch to
search the dns first, then netbios for names.


Tim.