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sirbountyFlag for United States of America

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XP Networking

 NETWORKING                  NETWORK
      BASICS                  TROUBLESHOOTING
{http:#11268699}          {http:#11268884}
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nekote - I never said NetBeui was required...

Yehudi - I partially agree with you...
The Netbios helper service is not needed...I'm not even sure what it's for.
But Netbios under TCP/IP properties/Wins tab needs to be enabled/defaulted if you're going to successfully ping nodes on your network (without DNS/WINS) by name (NetBIOS name).

I've tested this.  
If you can get it working without NetBIOS turned on, I'd love to know how.
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yehudi

Not a problem SirBounty.  <grin>

Remember that TCP/IP is not just used by Windows, but is an internet protocol used by Linux/Solaris/Mac etcetera.  They don't have NetBIOS, but can still ping with the best of them.  

You are absolutely right that to ping by NAME you do need _some_ form of Name Service.  This is the Hosts file. You just enter in the IP and hostname in pairs on the same line... it does not even have to be the "correct" host name.  Then when you ping, Windows looks there (before it looks anywhere else for name resolution).  Simple as that.

There are other ways, but they are a little exotic. ;-)
Who wants to manage HOSTS files?  and who wants to especially explain a noob how to use and manage them over a forum.  If you understand HOSTS files, you probably don't need a networking tutorial like this.  What if they forget about it and change their computer names or add PCs?  Part of the charm of MS networking is that you can attach a client to the broadcast domain and they're immediately visible. In my experience, staticly configuring things only leads to complicated systems that are hard to troubleshoot later on.  IMHO

Securitywise, there are plenty of ways to secure your network other than turning off NBT.  If its a home network, most likely it's behind a NATed router, and ISPs block 139,445, etc... anyway.  And if it's wireless, no NBT isn't gonna stop any wardriving.

Maybe I'm just a bit defensive because half my points here were got by telling people to check their "NetBIOS over TCP/IP". =)