Changing a Primary WINS record

[bsi]

Greetings,

It is a long and sordid story but I am a power user in a company with no professional IT guys. So I get what normally would be IT functions. We just split off from our main company and haven't committed to an IT strategy. But that is another story.

So, here is a problem that I could not resolve through google. We used to have all computers with static IP's. The advice of the new owners IT buddy was to scrap that and go with DHCP so we did. Now this guy is nowhere to be found. However, a few users cannot log onto the server and use the company resources (shared network drive and printers). They are all laptop users who take their machines home every night.

When I run ipconfig /all, I see that the ip address from our olden days is still there under the Primary WINS section. On my own computer that connects properly, that entry is in line with the dhcp assignments.

So, my task is to blow away that entry. But nothing in google along the search of "changing primary WINS" gave me a crisp statement on how to do it. It appears to be in the TCP/IP section but without a clear and obvious procedure, I am not starting the procedure.

Does anyone know the procedure for resetting the primary WINS and letting it come from dhcp or wherever it is supposed to come from? I have administrator access but not the skills (scary eh?)

TIA

PS, BTW, I don't even know if that will fix the original problem of being able to access the resources. But it cannot help to be pointing to the old static ip address. If anyone has guidance on fixing the problem, I am all ears. Here are some observations

1) I cannot log in as administrator to the domain but I can log in as local administrator.

2) Computer can connect to the internet. They are sending a receiving e-mail and I can google. So, the network cards are functioning.

3) Users cannot see network printers and the shared hard drive which they used to be able to do about 4 weeks ago.

4) Our flighty IT helper disabled dhcp about 4 weeks ago for a short time (day or so) trying unsuccessfully to fix another problem and the this problem seems to date from a similar period.

 

[l69norm]

..... So, here is a problem that I could not resolve through google. We used to have all computers with static IP's. The advice of the new owners IT buddy was to scrap that and go with DHCP so we did. Now this guy is nowhere to be found. However, a few users cannot log onto the server and use the company resources (shared network drive and printers). They are all laptop users who take their machines home every night.

When I run ipconfig /all, I see that the ip address from our olden days is still there under the Primary WINS section. On my own computer that connects properly, that entry is in line with the dhcp assignments.

So, my task is to blow away that entry. But nothing in google along the search of "changing primary WINS" gave me a crisp statement on how to do it. It appears to be in the TCP/IP section but without a clear and obvious procedure, I am not starting the procedure.

Does anyone know the procedure for resetting the primary WINS and letting it come from dhcp or wherever it is supposed to come from? I have administrator access but not the skills (scary eh?)

TIA

PS, BTW, I don't even know if that will fix the original problem of being able to access the resources. But it cannot help to be pointing to the old static ip address. If anyone has guidance on fixing the problem, I am all ears. Here are some observations

1) I cannot log in as administrator to the domain but I can log in as local administrator.

2) Computer can connect to the internet. They are sending a receiving e-mail and I can google. So, the network cards are functioning.

3) Users cannot see network printers and the shared hard drive which they used to be able to do about 4 weeks ago.

4) Our flighty IT helper disabled dhcp about 4 weeks ago for a short time (day or so) trying unsuccessfully to fix another problem and the this problem seems to date from a similar period.

Is this an AD domain, Windows Domain or Windows Workgroup?. Is your network using a dedicated WINS server and/or Domain Controller? Is the DHCP server the Domain Controller/WINS server (i.e. part of the domain) or being supplied by the networking gear?

I haven't set one up for a few years, but from memory:
On the DHCP server, you would set up the WINS IP address, WINS settings, DNS address, DNS settings, etc to pass to the PC on boot-up.

On the PC, you would set Control panel-> Network and Internet Connections -> Network Connections -> (Local Area Connection -> properties -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> properties . Set obtain IP address automatically, obtain DNS automatically -> advanced ->WINS -> Netbios setting - > automatic

1. You must be able to login as an administrator on the DHCP server and all of the PCs
2/3). DNS settings let you access the internet and do internet e-mail. WINS lets you connect to drive file shares, printers, etc.
4) what was the other problem? You might want to check if all the parameters entries on the DHCP server were re-entered correctly. He might have deleted/ changed the parameter settings to try to fix that other problem and forgot to re-enter everything again when he was done.