Name resolution in Vista

[SuperK]

Can anyone tell me exactly what Vista (and XP for that matter) uses for name
resolution when on a small p2p workgroup?
With no domain or server running DNS and no longer able to run Netbios on
the pc. With IP installed I can ping by IP address but what exactly is
allowing me to ping by machine name?

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

Can anyone tell me exactly what Vista (and XP for that matter) uses for name
resolution when on a small p2p workgroup?
With no domain or server running DNS and no longer able to run Netbios on
the pc. With IP installed I can ping by IP address but what exactly is
allowing me to ping by machine name?

Most computers will be running the 'Computer Browser' service. One
computer will become a 'master' (there is a form of election for this)
and the others use that to store IP-to-name info.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188001

 

[Bob Lin \(MS-MVP\)]

For P2P network, you may want to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[SuperK]

NetBIOS allows you to ping by machine name.

You can edit the hosts file to achieve name resolution.

-Frank

But NetBios is no longer installed, supported in Vista and XP. It appears to
be severely frowned upon by IT people.

Are you saying install it anyway?

 

[Michael Walraven]

By default, a Vista machine will use NETBIOS if necessary, it is a part of
tcp/ip V4.

View the status of your TCP/IP connection
Select the properties button
Select the Internet Protocol Version 4 item and select properties again.
Select the Advanced button
Now the WINS tab
Look down in NetBios setting area for your current settings.

As I understand it, you do not need NETBIOS for XP (SP3), or Vista (SP1)
machines, but it does come into play if there is a 98/SE/ME machine involved
or some older device that does not have newer protocols available.

To play around you could force disable NetBIOS and see what happens,

Michael

 

[Michael Walraven]

I would phrase it a little differently. If you enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP in
VISTA, then the VISTA TCP/IP protocol stack will interact with machines that
are running NetBIOS and as part of that interaction can resolve names. As
far as I know there is no separate NetBIOS protocol available to install in
VISTA.

For VISTA this all comes under the general term 'network discovery'.
Depending on your level of curiosity searching Help and Google for 'Network
Discovery' can probably provide much more information that you actually want
(unless you are trying to develop your own box/protocol to cooperate with
VISTA and make sure that you can be 'discovered').

Michael

 

[SuperK]

Thank you for the clarification, Michael.

So if I understand you correctly:

You don't specifically install NetBios as an additional protocol but by
enabling NetBios over TCP/IP, you are turning on a type of subset of NetBios
that is part of the TCP/IP protocol?

Is that correct?

 

[Chuck [MVP]]

But NetBios is no longer installed, supported in Vista and XP. It appears to
be severely frowned upon by IT people.

Are you saying install it anyway?

NetBEUI is no longer supported. NetBEUI !== NetBT.

http://networking.nitecruzr.net/2005/07/windows-networking-and-alternate.html

NetBIOS Over TCP is still a viable, and important, "protocol", in Vista. NetBT
provides name resolution for peer to peer networks, resource enumeration (aka
"browsing"), and file sharing.

http://networking.nitecruzr.net/2006/07/advanced-windows-networking-using.html