NetBIOS is a session-level interface used by programs to communicate over NetBIOS- compatible transports, including TCP/IP. One function of the NetBIOS interface is to establish logical names for networking programs.
Microsoft Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is compliant with RFC 1001 and RFC 1002. Microsoft WINS is designed to provide a flexible solution to the problem of locating NetBIOS resources in routed, TCP/IP-based networks.
When using TCP/IP to communicate on a network, a "friendly" Windows-based NetBIOS computer name, such as "mycomputer," must be resolved to an IP address. This is necessary because TCP/IP requires an IP address, such as 172.16.48.1, to establish a connection to a network device. Several different name resolution methods provide NetBIOS name resolution. These methods include: