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can't ping or map drive by netbios name

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NT 4, SP6a. One of our customer's computers crashed last week. I don't know the details. This week, they can't map a drive, and upon further investigation, found out that you can't ping by netbios name. You can map a drive by IP address and pingby IP address. We have determined it is a WINS problem. We have the tcp/ip settings configured to list the two wins servers, and all the settings are correct. They have not changed. The netlogon is set for automatic, and everything we have looked at is fine. It doesn't matter who is logged on. It refuses to recognize a netbios name. We have even tried deleting the dns servers and restoring that. Sometimes that makes a difference. Is there something in the registry that maybe is corrupted that we can clear out so it recognizes the WINS settings or something like that? We were thinking about removing the WINS settings and adding them back in, but are pretty skeptical that this will do any good at this point. HELP!!

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by estebandelatorre

The netbios name is not unique!, Change it!
When you boot up a Windows computer that?s running TCP/IP, NBT goes to work. It first broadcasts the name across the network and waits for a response to be sure the NetBIOS name is unique. If it doesn?t get a response, it assumes the NetBIOS name is unique and creates its local name table, which consists of the local computer?s NetBIOS name and IP Address association, as well as information about the domain or workgroup to which it belongs. If the network is using WINS, NBT will register the system?s NetBIOS name and IP address information with the WINS server. If the system has an LMHOSTS file, NBT will read the information from that file into the NetBIOS name cache

by estebandelatorre

If you?re having problems with your TCP/IP connectivity, as a part of your troubleshooting efforts, you?ll need to be able to check out NetBIOS name resolution problems by inspecting the NetBIOS name table and the name cache. This is where the NBTSTAT utility comes in; it?s basically a tool that allows you to view and manipulate the NetBIOS name table and the name cache
NBTSTAT utility basics
The NBTSTAT utility is a command line utility. To use it, you have to shell out to a command prompt when using Windows NT or Windows 2000, or to a MS-DOS Prompt in Windows 9x/Me. With it, you can view the NetBIOS name cache on your local computer or on any remote computer on the network. To do its job, the NBTSTAT utility requires a parameter that includes a code to tell the utility what operation you want to perform. In addition, the code NBTSTAT requires the NetBIOS name or IP address of the remote system whose NetBIOS name cache you want to view.
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
?a When given its name, this lists the remote machine's name table
?A When given its IP address, this lists the remote machine's name table
?c Lists the remote name cache including the IP addresses
?n Lists local NetBIOS names
?r Lists names resolved by broadcast and WINS
?R Purges and reloads the remote cache name table
?RR Sends Name Release packets to WINS and then starts Refresh, a new parameter only available in Windows 2000
?S Lists the session's table with the destination IP addresses
?s Lists the session's table converting destination IP addresses to host names via the hosts file
RemoteName Remote host machine name
IP addr Dotted decimal representation of the IP address
interval Displays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds between each display; press [Ctrl]C to stop displaying statistics
Syntax:
NBTSTAT [-a remotename] [-A IP addr] [-c] [-n] [-r] [-R] [-s] [-S] [-RR] [interval] ]

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