WINS dependence on IP name resolution

[Scott H. Baxter]

I am currently trying to use WINS exclusively to resolve host names for our 
desktops.  Somebody 'architected' a desktop host naming convention that works 
for NetBIOS names but is not supported by our DNS configurations.  There are 
too many desktops to put in a hosts file and the only data structure that has 
both the IP and host names is WINS.  

However, it appears that WINS still needs IP name resolution.  Nmblookup won't 
work unless I can resolve the name first through hosts lookup.  This is 
bogus.  I plainly see the IP address in my NT WINS server table, the WINS 
server's address is appropriately configured in smb.conf, it shows up when I 
execute nmblookup with a high diagnostic value, AND nmblookup appears to work 
when I uncomment the workstation in question's address line in the hosts 
table.  I wondered what the deal was when I noted the IP resolution test 2 in 
the diagnostics procedure, and it appears that WINS client capability can not 
be served without prior IP name to address resolution.

What's up with this?  I need to get an IP address from a NetBIOS name through 
a WINS lookup to an NT 4.0 SP3 WINS server and don't particularly care at this 
point if the name used in WINS will resolve through other means.  Can anyone 
tell me if the SAMBA product suite will support this sort of enquiry?