[Samba] wins vs. browsing, and documentation

Logan Shaw lshaw at emitinc.com
Mon Jun 19 16:31:34 GMT 2006


I've been reading Chapter 9 ("Network Browsing") of the Official
Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide, and the documentation is
causing me some confusion.

Up at the very top of the chapter, it says:

 	WINS is the best tool for resolution of NetBIOS names to
 	IP addresses; however, WINS is not involved in browse list
 	handling except by way of name-to-address resolution.

But then there is a whole section in this chapter called "WINS:
The Windows Internetworking Name Server".  If the two aren't
related[1], then why is WINS covered in the browsing chapter?
Is this just a quirk of the way the documentation is laid out,
or does it imply there is a closer connection between browsing
and WINS?

I think it is the former, but it gets a little confusing,
particularly when the same chapter is discussing two different
types of synchronization:  synchronization between LMBs and DMBs
(which Samba *does* support -- I think) and also discussing
synchronization of data between WINS servers (which Samba does
*not* support).

   - Logan

[1] except that browse servers use WINS name services to
     find each other, but then lots of other things use WINS
     to find each other, so that's hardly a special situation.


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