How does Windows locate a Samba PDC?

[bakegoodz]

I have a interesting problem. I've created a Samba Primary Domain Controller, but when I try to join with Windows XP or Win7 (with all the compatibility stuff set in the registry) it says "It can't find the Domain controller" until I set the Windows Client's network WINS setting to the Samba PDC's IP address. The strange thing is that I took the Samba PDC server to another network the Windows client joined with just a standard DHCP settings. Both networks don't a WINS server setup or listed in the DHCP lease. The network requiring the WINS setting is running DD-WRT router running DNSmask. The network that Windows Client joins with plain DHCP has a DHCP3 and BIND services on a 10.04 server, and again no WINS setup in those configs. I don't know why the Windows client can't find the PDC. I've done some packet analysis when the problem happens. The Windows client does a browse with a broadcast packet on the subnet's broadcast address (ex 192.168.10.255) and the Samba server responds, but then Windows says it can't find it. So I think it should work on a completely static IP set LAN with no DHCP or DNS. Any ideas?

smb.conf


[global]

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = CLOUD
netbios name = MUSHROOM

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)

dns proxy = no

#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB).
max log size = 1000

# We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything
# should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log
# through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.
syslog = 1

[global]

workgroup = CLOUD
netbios name = MUSHROOM
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
dns proxy = no

#### Debugging/Accounting ####
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 1

####### Authentication #######

security = user
encrypt passwords = true
passdb backend = tdbsam

obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .

pam password change = yes

map to guest = bad user

admin users = smbmach

guest account = nobody

invalid users = root

########## Domains ###########

domain logons = yes
logon path = \\%N\%U\.windows_profile

logon drive = U:

domain master = yes
local master = yes
preferred master = yes
os level = 80

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
read only = no
create mask = 0600
directory mask = 0700

valid users = %S

[bakegoodz]

I talked to a SysAdmin and he says that Netbios is obsolete and unreliable. He says to always setup WINS in smb.conf and dhcp3.conf.

I went to do it and I see there is multiple lines for WINS. How exactly would you modify smb.conf to enable WINS?