To be fair, Exchange setup requires WINS. Without it, setup fails. Outside of that, Exchange requires shortname resolution, but the only answer to verify that you have shortname resolution is to use WINS/Netbios resolution.
Can you run without it? Yep. Is it supported? Not currently. Older versions of Outlook require it, but 2003 can use FQDN (which is needed for remote access situations). Short version? You really should maintain WINS in your Microsoft environment especially for cases not covered by Exchange. SQL, SMS, MOM etc will need it. Legacy apps will depend on it as well. If you know you only need shortname resolution and can get away with it, you *could* run Exchange/AD in a non-WINS environment, but just don't run into any problems where you need to get support. :) -ajm -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 10:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] WINS Both Outlook and Exchange are users of NetBIOS name resolution - to wit, in the general case, WINS. Outlook uses it to determine where to find its Exchange server to connect to and sometimes for what DC to use (GC information comes from DNS unless overridden by a registry item). Outlook will normally fall back to DNS except in some pathological conditions. Documented, but not public I don't think (my copy is dated during OL 2003 beta testing and it could've changed since then - I haven't run a network trace like joe probably has). The easiest thing to note about Exchange is that Exchange servers (take a look at them in your CN=Servers,CN=<Administrative Group>,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=<Organization Name>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,<domain>) aren't known by a FQDN or DN or GUID back into the A/D. Do some searching with ADSIedit for yourself on that topic. :-P Since Exchange is a forest-wide entity, hostnames could be duplicated in the DNS (note: I didn't say FQDN's - I said hostnames), but they can't be duplicated in WINS. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Sun Mar 06 12:55:30 2005 Subject: [ActiveDir] WINS Is WINS still needed for exchange 2003? Some have said outlook still needs WINS. List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
