NetBIOS name resolution question [WinNT]

[Ben Elliston]

Hi all,

This isn't exactly a Samba question, but it relates closely to NetBIOS over
TCP and I figure a lot of people on this list would be clued up on this
topic.  Any help would be most gratefully received!

I have two WinNT machines sitting on a network (they're the only ones on the
network in this instance).  They are configured with a basic hosts file (as
in "/etc/hosts") that lists just the IP address for "localhost" and are NOT
configured to use DNS or WINS for name resolution.

After a short period of time after bootup, commands like "NET VIEW" produce
the expected output -- both machines' NetBIOS names appear in the list.
What surprises me, however, is that ping (which as far as I knew, has as its
argument an Internet domain name) works using those computer names also!

So, my questions are:

1. Does NetBIOS (over TCP) do name advertisements for NetBIOS names and the
network address for the underlying transport?

2. Does WinNT ping try using its NetBIOS name cache in addition to other
naming services?

3. How is the name cache updated if multiple name advertisements are
received for the same computer name, but from different sources? (e.g. if
computer "SATURN" is multihomed).

Thanks!

Ben
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Ben Elliston                    .====    E-mail: ben.elliston at compucat.com.au
Compucat Research Pty Limited  /  ====.     Web: http://www.compucat.com.au
Canberra ACT Australia         .====  /
                                 ====.