Without getting too technical, it's what lets you do file/printer sharing over the network on Windows-based machines.

NetBIOS name

Each computer running Windows has a NetBIOS name; you can view/change it on the identification tab in Control Panel -> Network. Various services & client tools, including Network Neighborhood and NET USE, use NetBIOS names. The NetBIOS name is specified when Windows networking is installed/configured. In order to connect to a computer running TCP/IP via its NetBIOS name, the name must be resolved to an IP Address (the NetBIOS name-IP address resolution is often done by WINS - NetBIOS Name Server). A computer's NetBIOS name is often the same as that computer's host name (see below), but it doesn't have to be.

Host name

A Windows machine's NetBIOS name is not to be confused with the computer's host name. Each computer running TCP/IP (whether it's a Windows machine or not) has a host name (also sometimes called a machine name). You can view/change it on the DNS tab in Control Panel -> Network -> TCP/IP -> Properties Host names are used by applications such as telnet, ftp, web browsers, etc. In order to connect to a computer running the TCP/IP protocol using its HOST name, the host name must be resolved into an IP Address (the host name or FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)-IP address resolution is typically done by something called DNS - Domain Name System/Service). Changing a computer's Host name DOES NOT change its NetBIOS name.

What does this mean to the Chemistry Department user? Some points to remember:

1. Most Chemistry Department computers will be using DHCP (dynamic) IP addresses, not static IP addresses as previously. The actual IP address your computer is using may change when your computer is rebooted. See our DHCP FAQ for info on how to set up your computer to use DHCP addressing.
2. You do not need a static IP address to do Windows file/printer sharing, since these NetBIOS shares depend on the NetBIOS name, not the host name which is associated with a given IP address.
3. You will continue to be able to use Windows file/printer sharing on Department machines & see/access those shares (NetBIOS shares) from within the Department. But, you will not be able to access those NetBIOS shares on your PC from outside the Department.
4. There are some security risks (always have been) to using NetBIOS shares. We recommend that you password-protect all your NetBIOS shares, but especially any writeable shares you may have.
5. We also recommend getting away from using NetBIOS shares as much as possible. We recommend using your U: drive. You can move data onto your U: share on the central Windows fileserver, which is accessible from both inside and outside the Department.