NetBIOS Name Table

NetBIOS names are used as the basis for communication between applications. NetBIOS maintains a name table for each LANA for each process that contains the names by which the process is known on the network. These names are used when forming connections between processes.

Names are provided to NetBIOS by the application through the ncb_name member of the NCB structure. A name can be a unique name or a group name. NetBIOS checks the network to verify that a unique name is not already in use by another adapter. A group name can be used by several adapters.

NetBIOS names can be up to 16 characters long. This is large enough to accommodate a text version of the media access control (MAC) address, plus a few other characters. Using the MAC address in this way results in a name that is guaranteed unique on any network. The name NAME_NUMBER_1 is always present and has the value 1.

For more information, see Name Support.