Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The following command will list the NetBIOS names registered for a remote computer
called
COMPUTER2
:
> nbtstat -a COMPUTER2
■
Note
To use this command based on the IP address of a remote computer, use the
-A
IPAddress
switch instead.
How It Works
Despite the fact that Windows 2000, 2003, and XP use DNS as their default name resolution
scheme, you may still need to support (and therefore troubleshoot) NetBIOS name resolution
when accessing certain business applications, as well as interacting with down-level clients
and servers on your network.
Probably the most ubiquitous NetBIOS error occurs when you encounter the dreaded
“System error 53 has occurred: The network path was not found” while attempting to access a
remote resource using
net use
or the
\\
Computername
syntax. The cause of this error typically
boils down to one of two things:
NetBIOS name resolution
NetBIOS session issues
To rule out name resolution as the cause of the error, simply ping the remote host using its
NetBIOS name. If the ping is successful, NetBIOS name resolution is functioning correctly and
the issue lies in establishing a NetBIOS session with the remote host. If you are unable to ping
the remote computer's NetBIOS name but you
are
able to ping its IP address, you should begin
your troubleshooting steps with NetBIOS name resolution.
Probably the most useful command-line utility for troubleshooting NetBIOS issues is
nbtstat. This tool has a number of switches, each of which performs a different task:
-a
<NetBIOS name>
: Returns the NetBIOS name table and MAC address of the computer
name specified
-A
<IP address>
: Provides the same information as the
-a
switch based on the remote
host's IP address
-c
: Lists the contents of the local NetBIOS name cache
-n
: Displays the locally registered NetBIOS names for the local computer
-r
: Displays a count of all NetBIOS names resolved by the local computer, sorted by those
resolved by broadcast versus those resolved using a WINS server
-R
: Purges the name cache and reloads all entries in the Lmhosts file that are designated
with the
#PRE
(preload) tag
-RR
: Releases and reregisters all NetBIOS names with the configured WINS server
