nmbd & netbios name -> many addreses

[Christopher R. Hertel]

Dan Kaminsky wrote:
> OK so we use dash.  The point isn't the specifics--it's the concept that
> we reject any name that doesn't fit predefined standards, thus preventing
> the entire "How do we deal with bad names in the first place."

What is a bad name?  Again, I think you are trying to map NetBIOS names to
DNS names.  I've travelled that road.  There's a closed-down taco stand at
the end, and that's it.  Promise. 

Controlling which names are registered by WINS doesn't do much anyway. 
There's still the broadcast name resolution system, so "bad" names will
still work on the local LAN.  If you don't register the name, your users
will simply claim that the network is broken.  Also, there's the type
byte.  How do you include that with a DNS name?  Finally, there are names
hard-coded into applications.  One obvious example is the ..__MSBROWSE__. 
name.  Other code, including applications, does this too. 

> Central control over the WINS server buys us this, if we have something
> along the lines of a "wins verify" script...output 0, login, output !0,
> fail w/ debug.

I actually started to write that kind of thing.  I believe now that I was 
wrong headed.  Still, it's worth talking about.  I could be wrong about 
being wrong headed.  ;)

> Of course, I may be completely off about WINS if it truly has *nothing* to
> do with browsing.

It does and doesn't.  Browsing lists services and services are identified
by NetBIOS name.  One the user has selected a service, that service must
be found across the emulated NetBIOS LAN.  NetBIOS Name Services, along
with the datagram service, do the job of emulating a NetBIOS LAN
(emphasize LAN) over a (possibly routed) TCP/IP network.  In that sense,
they are not part of the NetBIOS LAN--they provide emulation. 

Browsing is an add-on.

Hope that makes some sense.

Chris -)-----

-- 
Christopher R. Hertel -)-----                   University of Minnesota
crh at nts.umn.edu              Networking and Telecommunications Services