NBTSTAT not finding HOST

[MikelB]

We have a server that is multihomed with 2 network cards. This server has registered itself with the WINS server as its Netbios name. We have also added a Static Mapping on the same WINS server using a different name to refer to this server.
When we try a NBTSTAT -a <static mapping name>, it returns with Host Not Found, however if we try PING <static mapping name> all is fine. If we try NBTSTAT -a <registered server name>, this works fine.
Should NBTSTAT -a <static mapping name> be returning the same details as when we use the servers registered name ?

 

[DeanTX]

NBTSTAT only shows a netbios table that your NIC has cached up... it's not exactly a tool to test WINS.

In fact, each NIC only has one mac address, but there may be various types of names registered in WINS for various uses (like if it is a domain controller, a master browser, bla bla) You may see 5 entries for the same server in wins..

A netbios table will only associate a mac address to a list of netbios names and their types.... doing a nbtstat -a won't necessarily mean a computername isn't there..it just isn't in the cache for whatever reason.

A better test of wins is to type:
\\registeredservername\sharename and then

\\staticservername\sharename....

These UNC paths will use WINS to find a path....

PING is only a test of DNS..it's not a test of WINS. It takes your machine's DHCP domain name or manually set domain and does a ping to it by looking up the name in a DNS server.

Also, the way a name is resolved is determined by the node type as established in DHCP...H-node, b-node, y-node..I forget what each one is it's been too long, but I do know we use H-node...do some research on that. I think H-node is default and the most preferred..