To enable lookup of WINS-names in Ubuntu, edit the file /etc/nsswitch.conf
and find the line:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
Append wins
to the end of the line so that it looks like this:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 wins
From now on you can also use NetBIOS names to address PCs in your LAN.