Definition of WINS Client in Network Encyclopedia.
What is WINS client?
WINS client is a client operating system that can register its NetBIOS name with a WINS server. It’s also known as a WINS-enabled client. All Microsoft operating systems that are network-capable can be WINS clients.
You can configure Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 95 clients by doing one of the following:
- Manually configuring the IP address of the WINS servers by using the WINS Address tab of the TCP/IP property sheet (or Advanced TCP/IP Settings in Windows 2000).
- Using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) with DHCP scope option 44 to configure DHCP clients as WINS clients. In Windows NT you do this by using the administrative tool called DHCP Manager, while in Windows 2000 you use the DHCP console.
WINS proxy agent
For non-WINS clients such as Macintosh computers, you can use the WINS proxy agent (provided with Windows NT and Windows 2000) to enable these clients to perform NetBIOS name resolution. You can also configure static mappings on the WINS server to enable these non-WINS clients to be resolved using NetBIOS name resolution.