This approach is only viable if departmental or centralised WINS databases are maintained to relate Windows computer names to remote IP addresses. This possibility will be re-investigated in view of the recent confusion over computer naming. At the very least, the site wide naming scheme described as option 1 will be adopted to ensure uniqueness in the assignment of Windows computer names. While this is clearly the simplest option, such a scheme may prove difficult to enforce or police. If this is the case, the blocking of Net BIOS broadcasts in combination with our provision of a centralised WINS database is an attractive long term solution.
Departments can use the scheme to register critical server names.
This will guarantee unambiguous access to server resources for all computers across the campus network. Users electing not to use the central WINS service are free to do so as any machine name conflicts will be confined their own immediate sub network. HERT Hertford College HIST History Faculty Library INDL Indian Institute Library IMSU Information Management Services Unit ICLB Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory SLAV Inst. Due to these naming restrictions, replication and multi-server operations are not possible with Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 on computers that have a hyphen character as part of the computer name. The limitation described above for invalid SQL Server names has been removed under Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, to allow replication, multi-server, and SQL Enterprise Manager operations.