I tested a little more carefully, and the results are below
Summary of test environment:
Debian host Corax running Samba (version, dependencies, etc. in
initial report). smb.conf globals included below. key settings are
wins support = Yes
dns proxy = No
wins proxy = Yes
Corax is on a LAN (that's interface eth2 in smb.conf below). DNS
server and Internet gateway on an embedded-Linux dedicated firewall
also on the LAN. Corax is running a routed openvpn server (that's
interface tun0) but no hosts connected. One other machine on the LAN
during testing: WinXP Pro box called Plankton, whose WINS server is
Corax.
winbindd installed but NOT running.
I conducted four tests (1-4) in each of four conditions (A-D).
During the tests, I monitored network traffic with Wireshark on both
Corax and Plankton (they're connected by a switch, not a hub).
Between conditions, I restarted nmbd and confirmed all instances were
stopped before restarting.
Each test was done with hostname 'luckyN' or 'luckyNN' where N is a
digit. These are valid Netbios names, and because I increased the
number with each test (never re-using a hostname) caches shouldn't
affect results. I represent the changing test hostname with just
"<unknown>" below. The default domain name on all machines is
swift.private.
condition A
/etc/samba/smb.conf -> name resolve order = wins
/etc/nsswitch.conf -> hosts: files dns wins
condition B
/etc/samba/smb.conf -> name resolve order = wins bcast
/etc/nsswitch.conf -> hosts: files dns wins
Condition C and D are same as A and B but without "wins" in the NSS
layer.
condition C
/etc/samba/smb.conf -> name resolve order = wins
/etc/nsswitch.conf -> hosts: files dns
condition D
/etc/samba/smb.conf -> name resolve order = wins bcast
/etc/nsswitch.conf -> hosts: files dns
Test 1 gave one of two results (one for conditions A/B, another for
C/D). Tests 2-4 gave the same results in all four conditions. There
were other surprises as well. See my comments on each test. My
expectations are probably incorrect in places, but still there seems
to be a problem with Samba.
test 1 (conditions A B)
corax% ping <unknown>
DNS query for <unknown>.swift.private fails
assume that a WINS lookup fails
NBNS broadcast from Corax for <unknown> (3 packets)
comment: Samba SHOULDN'T broadcast when "name resolve order" doesn't
contain "bcast" (condition B).
test 1 (C D)
corax% ping <unknown>
DNS query for <unknown>.swift.private fails
comment: as expected
test 2 (A B C D)
corax% nmblookup -U localhost -R <unknown>
fails, i.e., no network traffic, no broadcast
comment: Samba SHOULD broadcast when "name resolve order" contains
"bcast" (conditions B and D). Comment below on test 4 may apply as
well.
test 3 (A B C D)
plankton% ping <unknown>
DNS query for <unknown>.swift.private fails
NBNS query to Corax for <unknown> fails
NBNS broadcast from Plankton for <unknown> (3 packets)
comment: Samba SHOULD broadcast when "name resolve order" contains
"bcast" (conditions B and D) -- but maybe Samba is smart enough to
refrain from broadcasting after a failed query from a WinXP client
that we know is going to fall back on doing a broadcast itself?
test 4 (A B C D)
plankton% nblookup <unknown>
NBNS query to Corax for <unknown> fails
comment: same as for test 3, but regarding the question is Samba
smart enough, etc., in this case, the assumption that Plankton will
fall back on a broadcast is wrong because the WINS query was made
with a diagnostic tool (nblookup) not the normal WinXP name
resolution procedure.
smb.conf excerpt (value of "name resolve order" was varied):
[global]
workgroup = TRANSFINITES
netbios aliases = BRAIN
server string =
interfaces = 127.0.0.1, eth2, tun0
bind interfaces only = Yes
obey pam restrictions = Yes
passdb backend = tdbsam
guest account = sambaguest
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n
*Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
log level = 3 passdb:5 auth:10 winbind:5
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
name resolve order = wins
printcap name = cups
lm announce = No
preferred master = Yes
domain master = Yes
dns proxy = No
wins proxy = Yes
wins support = Yes
ldap ssl = no
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
invalid users = root
printer admin = @lp
printing = cups
print command =
lpq command = %p
lprm command =
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