NetBIOS

Hmm...........
I just checked my XP machine and I still have Netbios checked, it's just not being used.
I think if you have two machines that have the IPX/SPX protocol installed, they should communicate thru that protocol. If you cannot share files between the two machines, make sure your firewall is not blocking it. I use Outpost, and Outpost does not filter NetBEUI or IPX/SPX, but I don't know about LNS.

 

Hi root!

If you install NetBIOS, these two protocols are added on your system:

NWLink-NetBIOS
NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS

I can try and play with it. Deactivating NWLink-NetBIOS, activate NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS. But I'm not sure if there's a benefit of it.

Look'n'Stop is set correctly. I added rules (MAC address), so that the other computers can communicate with each other. Overall I think without NetBIOS enabled you can't communicate between the different computers. But unfortunately I don't understand all the technical stuff which is mentioned in most solutions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Somehow NetBIOS and Co. is tricky...

Regards!

Patrice

 

Maybe a less technical explanation helps:

"NetBIOS -- What is it?

Without getting too technical, it's what lets you do file/printer sharing over the network on Windows-based machines.

NetBIOS name:

Each computer running Windows has a NetBIOS name; you can view/change it on the identification tab in Control Panel -> Network. Various services & client tools, including Network Neighborhood and NET USE, use NetBIOS names. The NetBIOS name is specified when Windows networking is installed/configured. In order to connect to a computer running TCP/IP via its NetBIOS name, the name must be resolved to an IP Address (the NetBIOS name-IP address resolution is often done by WINS - NetBIOS Name Server). A computer's NetBIOS name is often the same as that computer's host name (see below), but it doesn't have to be.

Host name:

A Windows machine's NetBIOS name is not to be confused with the computer's host name. Each computer running TCP/IP (whether it's a Windows machine or not) has a host name (also sometimes called a machine name). You can view/change it on the DNS tab in Control Panel -> Network -> TCP/IP -> Properties Host names are used by applications such as telnet, ftp, web browsers, etc. In order to connect to a computer running the TCP/IP protocol using its HOST name, the host name must be resolved into an IP Address (the host name or FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)-IP address resolution is typically done by something called DNS - Domain Name System/Service). Changing a computer's Host name DOES NOT change its NetBIOS name."

Found that here: http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/compsupp/Faqs/netbios.html

Regards,

Pieter