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  NetBIOS

  • Article
  • 04/08/2010

 

A Microsoft® Windows®-based application can use the Network Basic Input/Output System (NetBIOS) interface to communicate with applications on other computers in a network. The NetBIOS interface provides commands and support for the following services:

  • Network name registration and verification
  • Session establishment and termination
  • Reliable connection-oriented data transfer
  • Unreliable connectionless data transfer (datagram)
  • Protocol and adapter monitoring and management

Remember that the NetBIOS interface is provided primarily for existing legacy applications that use IBM NetBIOS 3.0 and need to be ported to Windows. New applications and applications not requiring compatibility with NetBIOS should use other interfaces, such as mailslots, named pipes, RPC, sockets, or distributed COM to accomplish tasks similar to those supported by NetBIOS. These interfaces are more flexible and portable than NetBIOS.
In This Library Section Essentials
  • Technical Articles
  • SDK Documentation
  • About the NetBIOS Interface
  • NetBIOS Commands
  • Using the NetBIOS Interface
  • NetBIOS Reference
  • NetBIOS Structures