Name servers such as WINS and DNS are used to make finding resources on large network easier without having to memorize IP addresses. They provide a more "friendly" way of locating things.
WINS is used to register NetBIOS names and resolve them to IP addesses for both local and remote hosts. If a WINS server is configured, then name resolution requests are sent directly to it and in turn the WINS server will send the IP address to the requesting client.
The internet used to use a hosts file to resolve IP addresses to host names or domain names. The internet grew to the point where the administration and the traffic needed to maintain this file became unbearable and DNS was born. The way DNS works is very similar to calling information. You call them with a name, they check their database and give you the phone number. Nameservers are distributed into tiers called domains.
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