Explanation of Windows NT 4.0 WINS Consistency Checking

Consistency checking was added to the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) server in Windows NT 4.0 to aid in maintaining database integrity among WINS servers in a large network.

When consistency checking is enabled on a WINS server, the server pulls all of the records directly from each owner server in its database, which includes servers that the WINS server has records from that are not among its replication partners.

NOTE: If a WINS database is extremely large, the consistency checking process may be network intensive.

All records are compared from the local and remote databases.

• If the record in the local database is identical to the record pulled from the owner database, its timestamp is updated.
• If the record in the local database has a lower version ID than the record pulled from the owner database, the pulled record is added to the local database and the original local record is marked for deletion.
• If the records have the same version ID but a different name, the local record will be marked deleted and the pulled record will replace it.

Consistency checking is enabled through registry changes. It can also be triggered using the WINSCL utility available as part of the Windows NT 4.0 Server Resource Kit.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: