NetBIOS

NetBIOS stands for Network Basic Input Output System and is the standard used by peer computers to communicate on a subnet. Almost all types of Microsoft Windows computers use NetBIOS for network communication. On Windows networks, either WINS or DNS servers can be used for address to name resolution so LMHOSTS files on individual computers are not necessary. The standard was also adopted by Novell. NetBIOS relies on SMB for message formatting. See the terms DNS, LMHOSTS, SMB, subnet, and WINS in this Glossary for more information.