Flush WINS Cache Samba
So, I reallocated some IP addresses on the home network after installing a new router. The problem was that WINS (the thing that resolves short names like "server" or "laptop" on the average home network) kept giving me the wrong (old) IP address.
OK, fair enough, to clear the Windows cache of names should be easy, just use the "repair" function on the network adaptor, or manually use the "nbtstat -R" command.
Unfortunately, that's not enough, I use a Linux server running Samba (actually it's the contribs.org distribution) to do WINS and Samba serving.
If you google for "clear samba wins cache" you'll find many answers that are just plain wrong. nmbt is the daemon that manages the name resolution. Restarting it does NOT flush it's cache.
You must edit or remove the "wins.dat" file so that a fresh one is created. Find it with the linux find command. Mine was in /var/cache/samba. I just moved it to a temporary folder. A new one was created as soon as nmbd was started.
Why isn't this easier to find? Who knows...
tags: clear, erase, reset, nmbd, smbd, restart, wins, name resolution