A colleague and I just upgraded our WINS server from Windows NT4.0 to Windows 2000. We also, at the same time, upgraded our DHCP and DNS to Windows Server 2000. I have noticed one thing that is creating a little bit of a headache. When I shut a computer off on the network, the WINS database reports that the address is “released”. Then my proxy server, which queries DNS which in turn queries WINS cannot find that computer and drops it from allowing it to the internet sites it should be able to get to. I use squid Proxy, and when you make a change (add someone, change someone from certain sites to different site access) you have to reconfigure the proxy server. This is where that individual whose WINS entry says “released” gets dropped. The problem is this is not an automatic reconfigure for squid, an administrator has to do it. At times, people get dropped, come in and cannot access the internet, and there is no admin around.
My question is: Windows NT4.0 did not used to do this, but now 2000 does? Is getting marked “released” in the WINS database, supposed to happen in Win Server 2K?
One last thing, if I hard shutdown the pc (I know, not smart but I had to test!) then the WINS entry does not get “released”, so I would assume the pc is sending a release request or something like that? If so, can I turn that off?
Jayson