Scaling problems with Windows Clients name and address lookup

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, Christopher R. Hertel wrote:

> Richard,
> 
> I don't have an answer regarding registry entries.  I'll mention that this
> is just the tip of the iceberg regarding scalability.  NetBIOS to DNS name
> mapping simply doesn't work outside of a LAN.  Browsing gets very silly
> beyond a few interconnected LANs. 

if microsoft had used the NetBIOS scope as it was intended (to mirror the
DNS zone) then we wouldn't _be_ in this mess.  NetBIOS names _do_ scale,
*if* you use the (variable length, limited to 64 chars) NetBIOS scope.

it's just that no-one knows what it is; ms browsers don't bother with it,
therefore browsing doesn't scale.


> Chris -)-----
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > just recently it was pointed out that Windows clients do a WINS lookup
> > first when  trying to translate an address to a name (gethostbyaddress) and
> > then try a DNS lookup after that.
> > 
> > It was further pointed out that when doing a name to address translation
> > (gethostbyname), a similar thing happens.  Windows does a WINS lookup and
> > then when that fails, does a DNS lookup.
> > 
> > Now, both of these are very poor from a scaling point of view.  Every name
> > lookup is forced to wait for WINS to time out (I think) and transmits extra
> > network traffic just to do name lookups.
> > 
> > Now, under WINSOCK16, there are registry parameters that are supposed to
> > affect this:
> > 
> > HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider\
> >     DnsPRiority =   2001?
> >     HostsPriority = 599?
> >     LocalPriority = 499?
> >     NetbtPriority = 2000?
> > 
> > However, these seem to have no influence on the WINSOCK32 stack (WINSOCK2).
> > 
> > Does anyone know of any registry settings that do affect these?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Regards
> > -------
> > Richard Sharpe, sharpe at ns.aus.com, NIC-Handle:RJS96
> > NS Computer Software and Services P/L, 
> > Ph: +61-8-8281-0063, FAX: +61-8-8250-2080, 
> > Samba, Linux, Apache, Digital UNIX, AIX, Netscape, Stronghold, C, ...
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Christopher R. Hertel -)-----                   University of Minnesota
> crh at nts.umn.edu              Networking and Telecommunications Services
> 

<a href="mailto:lkcl at samba.anu.edu.au" > Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton  </a>
<a href="http://mailhost.cb1.com/~lkcl"> Samba and Network Development </a>
<a href="http://www.samba.co.uk"       > Samba and Network Consultancy </a>