Disabling NetBIOS in workgroup

[Emma]

I have 3 machines on a seperate network not in a domain.
They are all running Windows 2000 and are in the same IP
subnet. Is it possible to disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP and
just use the DNS hosts files on each machine for name
resolution? Or do I need a DNS server and Active Directory
for these machines to talk with NetBIOS disabled?

TIA

 

[Chad Mahoney]

I have 3 machines on a seperate network not in a domain.
They are all running Windows 2000 and are in the same IP
subnet. Is it possible to disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP and
just use the DNS hosts files on each machine for name
resolution? Or do I need a DNS server and Active Directory
for these machines to talk with NetBIOS disabled?

TIA

Emma,

When you say DNS host file, you mean the hosts file local on each
machine located in c:\OSdirectory\system32\drivers\etc?

If so this should work ok. If not I am unsure what you mean by DNS host
file...

Chad

 

[Emma]

Yes the hosts file in C:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc.
However this setup does not seem to work. I am unable to
access a file share on one machine from another machine
using this method. I have the IP, FQDN and a NetBIOS style
alias for the machine that is sharing, in the hosts file
of the machine trying to access the share, yet it cannot
access the share using any of these as the server name in
the UNC path.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Try configuring the lmhosts file. --- Steve

 

[Emma]

Have configured the lmhosts file as well? Are there any
other services that still need to be running even if
NetBIOS name resolution is disabled? - Computer browser
service?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Computer browser service will not work if netbios over tcp/ip is disabled.
File and print sharing needs to be enabled as does Client for Microsoft
networks. A netstat -an command on your computers offering shares should
show port 445 listening. Make sure you hosts/lmhosts files have been
configured correctly and not saved with an extension. use the #pre option to
load the entry into the netbios name cache at logon. You then should see the
entry when you do a nbtstat -c command. --- Steve

 

[Emma]

I know the Computer browser service will not work if
netbios over tcp/ip is disabled. Is it required still with
DNS name resolution? - I am lead to believe not.
File and print sharing is enabled on the sharing server
only and Client for Microsoft networks is enabled on all
machines. netstat -an on the computer offering shares
shows port 445 listening. Hosts/lmhosts files have not got
extensions. I have used the #pre option to
load the entry into the netbios name cache and reloaded
the cache so that the entry appears with nbtstat -c. Once
the machines had the cache entries they were able to ping
each other using the name entered in lmhost. However still
unable to access the share - just states that the resource
cannot be found?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

How are they trying to access the share? Try unc as in \\servername\share
first and if that does not work try \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\share name where
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the actual IP address of the server offering the shares.
Run "net config server" on that machine also to see if it reports server
service is running OK and do "net config workstation" on one of the client
machines. --- Steve

 

[Emma]

I've done as you have suggested to no avail?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

OK. So you are saying that when you use the IP address to try and access the
share such as in \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\sharename in the run box it does not work
after verifiying you have network connectivity to the server by pinging it
using that IP address? If so, what error message are you getting when you do
such. --- Steve