NetBIOS

Article

15 sections

Contents

History and terminology
Services
Name service
Datagram distribution service
Session service
NetBIOS name vs Internet hostname
NetBIOS name
Internet hostname
Node types
NetBIOS suffixes
Protocol stack
See also
References
Further reading
External links

NetBIOS () is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model, allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. As strictly an API, NetBIOS is not a networking protocol. Operating systems of the 1980s (DOS and Novell Netware primarily) ran NetBIOS over IEEE 802.2 and IPX/SPX using the NetBIOS Frames (NBF) and NetBIOS over IPX/SPX (NBX) protocols, respectively. In modern networks, NetBIOS normally runs over TCP/IP via the NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT) protocol. NetBIOS is also used for identifying system names in TCP/IP (Windows).

The NetBIOS Frames protocol is most commonly used as one of the layers of Microsoft Windows networking in the 1990s. NBF or NetBIOS over IEEE 802.2 LLC is used by a number of network operating systems released in the 1990s, such as LAN Manager, LAN Server, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95 and Windows NT. Other protocols, such as NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP), and NBX (NetBIOS-over-IPX/SPX) also implement the NetBIOS/NetBEUI services over other protocol suites.