XP Native support for NetBIOS?!?

bluesjunior23

Mike claims on page 454 of the Net+ exam guide third edition that: "The latest versions of Windows-2000 and XP-have dumped native support for WINS..." However, I thought that to browse computers in My Network Places required NetBIOS. So is he saying that XP has dumped native support for WINS and NetBIOS or just WINS. And if so then what happens if I tell my DHCP server to hand out a WINS server address? Will my XP machine refuse to use it?

Thanks guys!

Mishra

I'm not too sure about what he is trying to say but Microsoft is trying to fade WINS out of their operating system. NT RELIED on /netbioswins but 2000 and xp do not. 2000 and XP still associate well with WINS.

bluesjunior23

What functions then does NetBIOS play on my network? I have 1 windows 2003 server and three windows xp clients. Whenever I run a nbtstat -c on one of the clients it will display a list of all the netbios names on my network. Im wondering what purpose NetBIOS is playing on my Network. Edit: It is clear that when I view My Network Places and then go to Microsoft WIndows network and then click on my domain, that NetBIOS is in fact being used. I never enabled this! What is going on here?

Mishra

NetBIOS has many functionalities that Windows puts to use on the network. You should read up on what different things NetBIOS actually does for a windows machine and if you want real life examples you can sniff packets and see what kind of traffic Windows passes which is filled with NetBIOS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbios