Trouble with Netbios over two subnets, can this be resolved with a domain controller?

Question

I'm working on upgrading the network at my office... Right now we have two subnets, one for our workstations (on a wireless network) and one for our servers (mapped to static IP addresses).

We're having trouble with folder sharing, etc. due to Netbios barfing on our dual-subnet layout. Is there a way around this? Should I just hook up our workstations to a wirless access point, without the subnet?

Something else to note, I will be setting up a domain controller shortly and putting all of the workstations and servers on the domain. Will this take the place of Netbios (not sure if I know what I'm talking about) in my network?

Any help is appreciated... Thanks for your feedback!

Solution

I believe this behavior is by design as NetBIOS works with broadcast packets. Setting up a WINS server when you set up the domain controller (and enabling the Computer Browser Service if it is Win2k8) and pointing clients to that WINS server should resolve this (assuming you have routing set up correctly).

WINS doesn't replace NetBIOS, but it provides a central point for NetBIOS name resolution that can work across subnets.

Comments

[azethoth]

Yep WINS is what you want.

[Spence]

+1 for WINS in this scenario. Like it or not, we still find the need for WINS out there in real life.

[Avery Payne]

@Evan, upvote for pointing out the ugly truth of WINS (see serverfault.com/questions/14785/… for a completely bizarre explanation by someone else about how it is "no longer needed". I countered that it was and got downvotes, go figure)

[Matt McCormick]

Thanks for the great feedback everyone. Very informative. Now, will a WINS server allow me to do file and printer sharing across these subnets?

[user1124702]

@mb...yes, providing routing and everything else is working, WINS will let you access servers for file and printer sharing across the subnets.