Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

implementation of NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS), a name server and service for

NetBIOS NetBIOS () is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. As strictly an API, Ne ...

computer names. Effectively, WINS is to NetBIOS names what DNS is to

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

s — a central mapping of host names to network addresses. Like the DNS, it is implemented in two parts, a server service (that manages the embedded Jet Database, server to server replication, service requests, and conflicts) and a

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...

client component which manages the client's registration and renewal of names, and takes care of queries. Basically, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is a legacy computer name registration and resolution service that maps computer NetBIOS names to IP addresses. WINS is Microsoft's predecessor to DNS for name resolution. Though WINS has not been deprecated, Microsoft advise against new deployments.Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) , Microsoft Docs
/ref>

References

External links

;Official sources
Microsoft TechNet: Windows Internet Name Service Overview
(Chapter 12 of the downloadable book "TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows")
Microsoft TechNet: WINS Technical Reference

Microsoft TechNet: WINS Concepts

MSKB837391: Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server require NetBIOS name resolution for full functionality
;Other

chapter i

online book (also published by O'Reilly as ), which talks about WINS. Microsoft server technology Windows communication and services {{Windows-stub