Why MUST netbios be enabled over TCP/IP in order for 2 systems to see each other??? grrr.....

[THELAIR]

Yesterday i was trying to get my laptop and home system totalk to each other. I used a crossover cable to connect the two cuz i couldnt find my hub. Anyways, i got them talking but i had to make sure my laptop and home system had netbios enabled over TCP/IP (it is by default in win2k)

Heres a lil info


HOME PC
Duron 700 128 mb ram Win2k (no service patch
192.168.0.1
255.255.255.0
workgroup: workgroup
pc name: og1
various drives and folders shared

LAPTOP PC
Celeron 633, 192 mb ram wink SP1
192.168.0.2
255.255.255.0
workgroup: workgroup
pc name: og2
varios drives and folders shared

however, as a security measure on my laptop i had DISABLED netbios over TCP/IP thinking i wouldn't need it, however when it came time for the 2 systems to talk to each other, i had to enable netbios....

blah... anyone know why?

 

[spidey07]

Netbios/SMB is the session/application layer protocol windows uses to communicate with another computer. If you are running IP then you must have netbios enabled if you want to talk IP to another Microsoft computer. Even if you use IPX or IP or NetBios, you are still really running netbios/smb just with different underlying protocols.

Hope this helps! If you are worried about security you can alway use NetBios to do MS networking and use IP for internet stuff. Then you wouldn't have to enable Netbios over IP.

 

[THELAIR]

thanks spidey! yah i think i might do that

 

[Shadow07]

"you can alway use NetBios to do MS networking and use IP for internet stuff"

You mean NetBEUI not NetBIOS. One other way around enabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP is to create a LMHOST file. You can search your HD for a file called LMHOST.SAM. It is a sample file of what a LMHOST file should contain. Is exactly like a HOST file in UNIX, but for NetBIOS names to IP addresses. You can create this file in the same location as where you find the SAM file, and then disable NetBIOS Over TCP/IP. This will get you around your security issues with NetBIOS.

Or you can get a personal firewall for your laptop. I use BlackICE and it works just fine.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.