What is WINS?
WINS is NetBIOS names over TCP/IP. It is what allows Microsoft Windows machines to contact each other via their Computer name from instances i.e.
\\Computer
In a domestic network setup, the computer names are not included in a local DNS server and so this is where WINS comes in.
WINS & Linux
Linux doesn’t try to contact other computers with their WINS names by default so the following will activate this.
apt-get -y install winbind apt-get -y install -f nano /etc/nsswitch.conf
Search for the line starting with hosts (ie “hosts: files dns”)
Change it too: hosts: files wins dns
Press [CTRL] + [X] hit [Y] and then [ENTER]
/etc/init.d/networking restart
You should now be able to ping a Windows Computer name.