There is also Windows Internet Name Service ( WINS ), which is effectively the same to NetBIOS names as DNS is to domain names.

A specific example of a nuke attack that gained some prominence is the WinNuke, which exploited the vulnerability in the NetBIOS handler in Windows 95.

As strictly an API, NetBIOS is not a networking protocol.

The NBT protocol was developed in order to " allow an implementation NetBIOS applications to be built on virtually any type of system where the TCP / IP protocol suite is available ," and to " allow NetBIOS interoperation in the Internet.

Worth noting is the popular confusion between the names NetBIOS and NetBEUI.

In truth, the former is the NetBIOS Frames protocol ( NBF ), and the latter is NetBIOS over TCP / IP ( NBT ).

( Note: SMB, an upper layer, is a service that runs on top of the Session Service and the Datagram service, and is not to be confused as a necessary and integral part of NetBIOS itself.

It is called the NetBIOS Suffix ( read below ) or " resource type ", and is used to tell other applications what type of services the system offers.

NetBIOS name resolution is not supported by Microsoft for Internet Protocol Version 6 ( IPv6 ).

Since NetBIOS is handling the error recovery, NACK packets will prompt retransmission of the data packet.

When NetBIOS is run over the TCP / IP protocol, each computer may have multiple " names " — names for the NetBIOS API and another ( or others ) for basic TCP / IP.

The NetBIOS name is 16 ASCII characters, however Microsoft limits the host name to 15 characters and reserves the 16th character as a NetBIOS Suffix.

Today this is usually an IP address ( the NetBIOS name – IP address resolution is often done by either broadcasts or a WINS Server – NetBIOS Name Server ).

In the Transport Layer ( Layer 4 ) the cable modem supports UDP in association with its own IP address, and it supports filtering based on TCP and UDP port numbers to, for example, block forwarding of NetBIOS traffic out of the customer's LAN.

NetBIOS was developed in 1983 by Sytek Inc. as an API for software communication over IBM PC Network LAN technology.

On PC-Network, as an API alone, NetBIOS relied on proprietary Sytek networking protocols for communication over the wire.

Also in 1985, Microsoft created a NetBIOS implementation for its MS-Net networking technology.

It was described in RFC 1001 (" Protocol Standard for a NetBIOS Service on a TCP / UDP Transport: Concepts and Methods ") and RFC 1002 (" Protocol Standard for a NetBIOS Service on a TCP / UDP Transport: Detailed Specifications ").

After the PS / 2 computer hit the market in 1987, IBM released the PC LAN Support Program, which included a driver for NetBIOS.

NetBEUI originated strictly as the moniker for IBM's enhanced 1985 NetBIOS emulator for token ring.

* Listen – listen for attempts to open a session to a NetBIOS name.

The Windows LMHOSTS file provides a NetBIOS name resolution method that can be used for small networks that do not use a WINS server.

NBF protocol 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.

At around the time when Sun Microsystems announced WebNFS, Microsoft launched an initiative in 1996 to rename SMB to Common Internet File System ( CIFS ), and added more features, including support for symbolic links, hard links, larger file sizes, and an initial attempt at supporting direct connections over TCP port 445 without requiring NetBIOS as a transport ( a largely experimental effort that required further refinement ).

In reality, the protocols were supported as a native transport for Windows ' SMB / NetBIOS, and NetWare connectivity required additional installation of an NCP client ( Microsoft provided a basic NetWare client with Windows 95 and later, but it was not automatically installed, and initially only supported NetWare bindery mode ).

Its use is strongly discouraged because it cannot be used for Windows networking except as a transport for NetBIOS, which is deprecated.

Windows Internet Name Service ( WINS ) is Microsoft's implementation of NetBIOS Name Service ( NBNS ), a name server and service for NetBIOS computer names.

* NetBIOS, Network Basic Input Output System

Because PC Network only supported up to 80 devices in its most accommodating mode ( baseband ), NetBIOS was itself designed with limited nodes in mind.

It originally used the Server Message Block protocol atop either the NetBIOS Frames protocol ( NBF ) or a specialized version of the Xerox Network Systems ( XNS ) protocol.

Print servers may support a variety of industry-standard or proprietary printing protocols including Internet Printing Protocol, Line Printer Daemon protocol, Microsoft Network Printing protocol, NetWare, NetBIOS / NetBEUI, or JetDirect.

NDDENB32. DLL ( Network DDE NetBIOS Interface )

It consisted of network cards, cables, and a small device driver known as NetBIOS ( Network Basic Input / Output System ).

When the proprietary PC Network hardware was replaced by token ring in IBM's later offerings, backwards compatibility with the NetBIOS application programming interface ( API ) was retained through an optional loadable program module.

Older operating systems 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.

Its services were encapsulated within NetWare's IPX / SPX protocol using the NetBIOS over IPX / SPX ( NBX ) protocol.

In 1987, a method of encapsulating NetBIOS in TCP and UDP packets, NetBIOS over TCP / IP ( NBT ), was published.

Consequently, even today, Microsoft file and printer sharing over Ethernet continues to be called NetBEUI, with the name NetBIOS commonly used only in reference to file and printer sharing over TCP / IP.

Generally the host name of a Windows computer is based on the NetBIOS name plus the Primary DNS Suffix, which are both set in the System Properties dialog box.

An examples of a network services would include Domain Name System ( DNS ), DHCP, NetBIOS, and HTTP.