DNS in Windows 2003

Litmus Test

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Professionals take the time to master their DNS settings

Amateurs use WINS where ever possible and avoid DNS

Way back in the days of NT 3.5, DNS was an afterthought and relegated to the option pack. By the time of NT 4.0, DNS, was a useful if peripheral service installed from the Windows Components. Nowadays with Windows Server 2003, you cannot even install Active Directory without being an expert in DNS. During these ten years, WINS has steadily declined, until now it only has a very minor role for Windows 98 clients and some Exchange servers.

At its simplest, DNS is responsible for mapping IP addresses to machine names. For example in, the DNS database there could be a host record (Type = A) for a machine called London with an IP address of 192.168.0.230.

To truly master DNS you must invest time in the learning the terminology and practice configuring, Reverse Lookup, Zone, Active Directory Integration and other specialist DNS settings.

In Windows Server 2003, DNS can dynamically update its own host records - hence the acronym DDNS. This overcomes a limitation of DNS in NT 4.0 and allows WINS to be phased out in pure Windows Server 2003 networks. The only real use of WINS is for organizations with distributed Exchange servers.

DNS and Active Directory

DNS holds SRV or Service records which enables desktop computers and servers to find domain controllers that are providing specific services. For example, Global Catalog and Kerberos are need for logon authentication; DNS returns the IP address of domain controller offering those services.

By integrating AD and DNS you reduce network traffic because only new or changed records are updated. This is known as incremental zone transfer (IXFR). In NT 4.0, the whole database was send over the network even if just one record changed.

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Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)

Litmus Test: Professionals phase out WINS

WINS is a Microsoft method for resolving names to IP addresses. As you have probably guessed I do not like WINS!

WINS is no longer needed in a pure Windows Server 2003 and XP networks. This is because DNS can handle the name resolution and find all the resources XP and W2K Pro need. However WINS still has a role in enabling Windows 9x clients to find their logon servers. To be fair, WINS has always allowed dynamic updates, but with DDNS clients can automatically change their IP registrations in DNS.

Another of Guy's