The NetBEUI protocol, first introduced by IBM in 1985, was written to the NetBIOS interface and designed as a small, efficient protocol for use on department-sized LANs of 20 to 200 workstations. This original design assumed that broader connectivity services could be added by including gateways as the network grew. (As described later in this chapter, NBF breaks the session limit that restricted NetBEUI's reach.)
The NetBEUI protocol provides powerful flow control and tuning parameters plus robust error detection. Microsoft has supported the NetBEUI protocol in all of its networking products since Microsoft's first networking product, MS-Net, was introduced in the mid-1980s.
NetBEUI is the precursor to the NetBEUI Frame (NBF) protocol included with Windows NT. NBF provides compatibility with existing LAN Manager and MS-Net installations, and with IBM LAN Server installations. On Windows NT, the NetBIOS interface is supported under MS-DOS, 16-bit Windows, and Win32 subsystem environments.