tek wrote:
On Nov 15, 3:21 am, "Steve Winograd [MVP]"
wrote:
In article
,

tek wrote:
What command can I execute to find which PC is acting as the WINS
server in my LAN?

If a network connection has been configured to use a WINS server,
"ipconfig/all" will show the server's IP address.

At the risk of stating what you already know: a typical workgroup
network doesn't have a WINS server. WINS usually requires a computer
running a server operating system.

The \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts files on each PC do not
contain static IPs because the router is the DHCP server.

That's apples to oranges.....and note that hosts isn't for NetBIOS. That's
LMHOSTS.

What allows
me to ping by hostname if there is no WINS server available? I must be
missing something in the way NetBIOS works.

NetBIOS is broadcast based. Without a WINS server (which you don't normally
have in a workgroup), your workstations are all participating in browser
elections and hollering at each other over the network. "Hey, have you seen
SERVER1? Oh, over there? Thanks."

WINS essentially shuts them up and says, "just check here when you want
NetBIOS name resolution." Your WINS server is usually your master browser -
when you have WINS, you can even stop & disable the computer browser service
on all the workstations. Without WINS, you need it running.