[Samba] WINS clients fail to release/refresh records with Samba WINS server after reboot

[Farshad Abasi]

Hi all,

We are running Samba 3.0.2a and using it as a domain controller and WINS server. After rebooting the server, we are unable to reach (i.e. looking up machines by name) some of our network PCs (Windows 2000 boxes), due to failure with WINS look up.

I investigated the wins.db file, and those Win boxes are not listed in there. If I use the command "nbtstat -RR" on those PCs to refresh and renew their WINS record on the WINS server, this does NOT seem to add them back in. The only way to get them to be added again is to reboot those PCs.

What I would like to know is:

a) Is there a way to have the PCs to register themselves with the Samba WINS server automatically after the Samba WINS server has been rebooted?

b) if there is no way to do this automatically, is there a way or a command to get the PCs to register with the Samba WINS server without having to reboot them?

-f.