how to discover the WINS server without using DHCP?

[David Wuertele]

Christopher> Thing 3:  Send a unicast query for workgroup<00> (and
Christopher>           Recursion Desired set).  If the node responds
Christopher>           with its own IP address then it's not an NBNS.
Christopher>           If it replies with 255.255.255.255 (and
Christopher>           Recursion Available set) then it's an NBNS.

This thing looks like it is working for me, at least in my testing
with Samba WINS servers.  Do you know if it is also true for MS WINS
servers?

Why does this work?  What does the 255.255.255.255 mean?

Christopher> Details on the workings of NBT (including the workings of
Christopher> the NBNS) are here:

Christopher>   http://ubiqx.org/cifs/NetBIOS.html

This is an EXCELLENT reference.  Thanks.

Dave