About the NetBIOS Interface

The NetBIOS interface is provided primarily for existing applications that use IBM NetBIOS 3.0 and need to be ported to the Win32 API. New applications and applications not requiring compatibility with NetBIOS should use other interfaces, such as mailslots, named pipes, RPC, sockets, or distributed COM to accomplish tasks similar to those supported by NetBIOS. These interfaces are more flexible and portable than NetBIOS. In addition, you can use sockets over NetBIOS to communicate with NetBIOS applications.

The Netbios function takes one parameter, a pointer to a structure describing the NCB. The NCB structure contains information about the command to perform, an optional post routine, an optional event handle, and a pointer to a buffer that is used for messages or other data.

This overview discusses the following topics:

• NetBIOS Operation
• NetBIOS LANA Numbers
• NetBIOS Name Table
• NetBIOS Session
• NetBIOS Enhancements
• NetBIOS Commands

The NetBIOS Requests for Comments (RFC) are 1001, 1002, and 1088. For more information on NetBIOS 3.0, contact IBM and order the IBM Local Area Network Technical Reference: IEEE 802.2 and NETBIOS Application Programming Interfaces.