Windows Internet Naming Service

Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) is Microsoft's name server for NetBIOS, which maintains a table of mappings between IP addresses and NetBIOS names of computers. This list allows you to quickly locate another computer on the network.

Using a Windows Internet Name Server on a network avoids more labor intensive lookups (such as broadcast requests) to obtain it, thus reducing network traffic.

Starting with Windows 2000 WINS was relegated in favor of DNS and Active Directory, however it is still required to establish network services with earlier versions of Microsoft systems.

In Unix and GNU/Linux environments, Samba can also act as a WINS server.