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Windows NT 4.0 workstation and Netbios

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by bob.beck

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Do I need the netbios protocol in a Netware 4.2 server/WinNT 4.0 client environment?
Is the netbios generating unnecessary traffic?

Thanks,

Bob

3 replies

by shanghai sam

Windows NT uses Remote Procedure Call (RPC) / Server Message Block (SMB) as the method of communicating between Microsoft Networking Devices (NT Servers, NT Workstations, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 3.1x, and DOS).

RPC/SMB was written to use NetBios as a packet structure and Microsoft networking devices can encapsulate these NetBios commands into one of 3 transport protocols (TCP/IP, IPX, NetBEUI).

NetBEUI is the default transport protocol and even if all 3 transport protocols arepresent, a Microsoft networked
device will default to attempting to locate a new network device using NetBEUI first. Once this request has timed out, it will then try the next transport protocol (the order is controlled in a registry key for Windows NT/95/98). This will continue until it has located the network device or it has tried all available transport protocols.

To avoid unnecessary trafic you need to configure the NT clients to wrap NetBios in IPX as first choice.

You can find additional info in Novell TID 10015571.

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