How to Automatically Close a NetBIOS Session After the Program Using It Quits

ID: Q231795

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SUMMARY

By default, unused NetBIOS sessions are disconnected after a 15-minute period of inactivity. If you need to disconnect a NetBIOS session (such as a drive mapping to a network resource) as soon as the program using it quits, you can do so by using the method described below. This may be necessary with some programs because they measure licensing by counting the connections to the server.

MORE INFORMATION

There is no built-in method in Windows NT to disconnect a drive mapping after a program quits. As a workaround, you can start the program from a batch file. The batch file maps the appropriate drive letter to the required share. Next, the batch file runs the program that uses the shared resource. Finally, the batch file disconnects the mapped drive.

For example:

net use drive: \\computername\sharename
drive:\application.exe
net use drive: /delete

You may need to use a freeware, shareware, or third-party utility to introduce a wait period after the "z:\application.exe" line so that the batch file continues to run for a few seconds after the program quits. This allows enough time for the program to finish closing its connections before the following command to disconnect the connection runs.

NOTE: Although the client deletes the drive mapping, the NetBIOS session is not ended on the server for an additional 255 seconds.

REFERENCES

For additional information about NetBIOS session behavior, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q115499 NBT SessionAlive and TCP/IP Session Termination

Q138365 How the Autodisconnect Works in Windows NT

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbenv kbtool
Version : winnt:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbhowto