NetBIOS Operation

[Netbios is not supported on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and subsequent versions of the operating system]

Protocol drivers expose the NetBIOS interface and map NetBIOS commands to their own native commands. The NetBIOS Frames protocol (NBFP) can be implemented by the underlying protocol software to perform the network I/O required by the NetBIOS interface.

The NetBIOS emulator accepts NetBIOS commands, translates them to Transport Driver Interface (TDI) calls, and forwards them to the transport driver using the TDI interface. NetBIOS emulation requires some functionality that is not required for all TDI drivers. A TDI driver that provides this functionality is called a NetBIOS-compatible TDI driver.

The following illustration shows how NetBIOS works on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.

 

 

The NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT or NBT) protocol provides NetBIOS support for the TCP/IP protocol. It is defined by RFCs 1001 and 1002. NBT for use by Netbios is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows Me/98/95.

The NetBIOS over NetBEUI protocol provides NetBIOS support for the NetBEUI protocol. This protocol is also called NetBIOS Frames (NBF). NBF is supported on Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows Me/98/95.

**Windows XP and later:  **NetBEUI is no longer be supported on Windows XP and later versions of Windows.

The NetBIOS over IPX (NBIPX) protocol provides IPX support. This protocol is also called NetBIOS on NetWare (NWNBLINK). It is based on Novell's NetBIOS. NBIPX is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows Me/98/95.

For more information about the protocol and driver layers and the TDI interface, see the Microsoft Windows Driver Development Kit (DDK) documentation.

 

 

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Build date: 7/2/2010