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NetBIOS over TCP/IP

networking protocol

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ1939382 ↗
Source-derived summary

NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT, or sometimes NetBT) is a networking protocol that allows legacy computer applications relying on the NetBIOS API to be used on modern TCP/IP networks.

NetBIOS was developed in the early 1980s, targeting very small networks (about a dozen computers). Some applications still use NetBIOS, and do not scale well in today's networks of hundreds of computers when NetBIOS is run over the NetBIOS Frames protocol. When properly configured, NetBIOS over TCP/IP allows those applications to be run on large TCP/IP networks (including the whole Internet, although that is likely to be subject to security problems) without change.

Services

NetBIOS provides three distinct services:

Name service for name registration and resolution (ports: 137/udp and 137/tcp)

Datagram distribution service for connectionless communication (port: 138/udp)

Session service for connection-oriented communication (port: 139/tcp)

NetBIOS over TCP/IP implements all of those services.

Name service

In NetBIOS, each participant must register on the network using a unique name of at most 15 characters. In legacy networks, when a new application wanted to register a name, it had to broadcast a message saying "Is anyone currently using that name?" and wait for an answer. If no answer came back, it was safe to assume that the name was not in use. However, the wait timeout was a few seconds, making the name registration a very lengthy process, as the only way of knowing that a name was not registered was to not receive any answer.

NetBIOS over TCP/IP can implement a central repository, or Name Service, that records all name registrations.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “NetBIOS over TCP/IP” as networking protocol. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 258-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where NetBIOS, over and networking can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as networking protocol. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1939382. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “NetBIOS over TCP/IP”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow NetBIOS over TCP/IP primary sources, NetBIOS over TCP/IP archive and NetBIOS research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “NetBIOS over TCP/IP” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.