Planning for WINS Server Performance

When planning for a large-scale power outage where many computers will go on line simultaneously, the conservative recommendation is that you plan to include one WINS server and a backup server for every 10,000 computers on the network. A WINS server typically can service 1,500 name registrations per minute and 4,500 queries per minute.

Two factors enhance WINS server performance. WINS server performance can be increased by almost 25 percent on a computer with two processors. WINS server name replication response time can be improved measurably by using a dedicated disk.

After you establish WINS servers on an intranet, you can adjust the time between a WINS client name registration and name renewal. This is referred to as the Renewal Interval. Setting this interval to reduce the numbers of registrations can help tune server response time. (The Renewal Interval is specified in the WINS Server Configuration dialog box.)