Disabling NetBIOS

[Jeff7]

Is there any way (or is it advisable) to fully disable NetBIOS on my PC's? In TCP/IP settings, the option to allow NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled and greyed out. My firewall keeps blocking network attempts that use TCP/IP because it thinks that they are NetBIOS. How can I disable this? Using Win98SE.

 

[Bglad]

Well you don't say what your setup but I'm assuming the machines are networked together and sharing internet.

What you want to do is use the bindings tab to unbind tcp/ip from your lan. I don't have win98 anymore so I'm doing this from memory but I believe you want to uncheck all the bindings under tcp/ip properties. The idea here is to use tcp/ip for wan to the internet and disable it from accessing your file sharing or lan. Then use another protocol like netbui for talking between your computers on your lan. That way someone from the internet using tcp/ip (which must be used over internet) cannot get into your network or file sharing. Right now your firewall is blocking because they really are netbios via tcp/ip. It is doing what it is supposed to do. You could just tell your firewall that the ip addresses on your lan are trusted but unbinding tcp/ip is really the way to go.

Read here.

 

[Nutz]

NetBUI in the home isn't all that bad of a thing. However, you don't want it if you've got shares. That just invites trouble, as you already know. Unbinding it like was posted should be acurate IIRC. Now, what kind of "firewall" are you using. Zonealarm, Smothwall, Raptor, Sidewinder, what???

 

[Jeff7]

Yup, networked together; I have a router, so that's where they're getting their IP addresses from. They also have file and printer sharing enabled. I'll unbind them from file and print sharing then and see how that goes.

Firewall is Zonealarm.