Names at Your Service - Windows NT includes features to match IP addresses with computer names

A few columns ago, we discussed the merits and benefits that the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) can offer to network managers. Recall that DHCP dynamically provides clients with leased IP addresses, eliminating the need for administrators to take on the arduous task of manually configuring static addresses and many more IP parameters.

While tackling the IP address problem is a huge help, it only addresses (no pun intended) half the issue. Assuming that it's impossible for any of us to remember more than two or three IP addresses of servers or workstations to which we want to connect, it would be helpful if more or less friendly text names can be associated with said servers. If planned smartly, we might be able to remember half a dozen or so systems! Fortunately, Windows NT includes two powerful features to match IP addresses with computer names.

The first, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), has been around for quite a while, and no doubt, you're already employing it. As its name suggests, WINS is used to map IP addresses to the NetBIOS computer names of Windows-based systems. Therefore, any other devices on your network that need mapping -- non-WIndows systems and devices such as IP-enabled printers -- can't take advantage of WINS. However, if the majority of your systems run Windows in some form or another, WINS can help you tackle the biggest chunk of the problem.

In a perfect world, every device on your network would be Windows-based in some fashion, and WINS would solve 100 percent of your IP-address-to-device-name problems. Unfortunately, we're not in that perfect world yet. So, you must use other means to map IP addresses to names of devices that WINS can't handle.

The second name service, Domain Name Service (DNS), is widely employed in IP networks. Rather than maintain a cumbersome text-based host file on every system, typically named HOSTS in the / etc directory of UNIX systems, DNS provides a powerful distributed database, located on servers that contain all the information IP-based systems need to resolve host names. IP-based Windows clients could be pointed to a DNS server to resolve host names of non-Windows-based systems.

Most DNS servers were -- and still are -- UNIX systems. Until Windows NT V4.0 was released, you had to buy third-party software to set up a DNS server under Windows NT. Happily, however, Windows NT V4.0 comes complete with DNS, eliminating the expense and time consumed with dealing with another vendor's implementation.

Why should you care about setting up a DNS server? A direct quote from the NT Server Technical Notes article "DNS and MSl Windows NT 4.0" off the June 1997 TechNet CD reads: "The DNS service that ships with Windows NT 4.0 is there if you need to use it; however, there is nothing in Windows NT Directory Services today that requires it. We would like you to start using it for typical DNS-type activity."

I like the last sentence. It sounds innocent enough. But not paying attention to it is like standing in a mid-Western mobile home park while a neighbor points to a menacing funnel cloud and says, "Cover is available if you need it, but it's not required. However, we'd sure like to see you take advantage of it." Should we be worried about this DNS thing?

This question is best answered by citing another direct quote from the same NT Server Technical Notes article: "It may no be that apparent today, but for a smooth migration to the next major revision of Windows NT, this will be important. The next major revision of Windows NT is tightly coupled with the DNS backbone." How so?

The next major release of Windows NT will include a new domain architecture termed Enhanced Directory Services (DS). Enhanced DS will interoperate with traditional Windows NT Server domains and will allow for a smooth migration from traditional Windows NT domains to Enhanced DS. As part of the migration, Microsoft will enforce its move toward a "true" IP environment -- no IPX, no NetBEUI, no NetBIOS.

Eliminating reliance on NetBIOS means eliminating NetBIOS computer names, which, as you can see, renders WINS unnecessary.

While NetBIOS name services may not be necessary, some sort of name service will be. That, of course, will be DNS. According to Microsoft, DNS will become the center of Enhanced DS. It will be used to locate just about everything on your network.

So if you're a Windows NT bigot and you think DNS is just a necessary leftover evil from the UNIX world, think again. Break out your Windows NT V4.0 Networking Guide and get studying.

David B. Miller is a network/server engineer for a Fortune 500 information services firm (Purchase, N.Y.). Contact him at millerdb@glinch-net.com.

COPYRIGHT 1997 101 Communications, Inc.
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