How to Verify the Domain Records in Windows 2000 Windows Internet Name Service

This article describes how to use two Windows 2000 tools to monitor the most important Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) domain records.

You must maintain the domain names entries in WINS when earlier Windows NetBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP) clients are serviced by Windows 2000 WINS servers.

Even though WINS can store many records that are associated with Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 domain names, the most important records have the network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) suffix of "1Ch" or "1Bh".

A record with the "1Ch" suffix represents a group entry that contains a list of domain controllers for logging on to a domain, or for maintaining a domain trust secure channel. A record with the "1B" suffix contains the address of the primary domain controller (PDC). In Windows 2000, a record with the "1B" suffix contains the address of the PDC Emulator, which can be used for domain administration, browsing, and client password changes. The loss of either of these types of records in a WINS server can cause significant loss of service. Therefore, these records must be monitored regularly.

The following two methods can be used to check for the presence of these records in a WINS database.

Method 1

In the WINS Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC), click SelectedServer, click Active Registration, and then click Verify Name Records. A list of names and servers can be entered individually or imported from the text files, and the entries on the list can be verified for accuracy, for example: NOTE: The preceding entries must be capitalized. Ensure that you enter a carriage return after the last entry if you are verifying the names from a file.

In the list, you can increase the number of servers than can be verified by clicking to select the Verify name records with all partners of each selected server check box.

Method 2

You can create a batch file that performs the same function (as the previous method) by using the Netsh command-line tool that contains most of the functions of the WINS Manager MMC. This command-line tool can be easily automated.

An example of a Netsh command line that uses the files "Names.txt" and "Servers.txt" is: The following output is from the preceding command line: