Hey everyone, I'm curious whether there's still a good reason to keep NetBIOS enabled in modern Windows setups. From what I've read, DNS seems to handle everything that NetBIOS was used for back in the day, and usually, it works better too. Recently, I've noticed that when trying to access a server via SMB using just `\HOSTNAME`, it sometimes fails while using the full domain name `\HOSTNAME.example.com` works fine. Interestingly, I found that turning off NetBIOS over TCP/IP fixes this issue. So, my question is: Is there any technical or compatibility reason to keep NetBIOS enabled in 2025, or is it safe to turn it off completely? Also, do you typically disable it in your environments, or do you just leave it as is, where it might be partially enabled? Thanks for your thoughts!
3 Answers
Definitely disable NetBIOS! Just a tip: Windows still tries to use it if it's not turned off, especially with DHCP. You might see it trying NetBIOS first before DNS when you browse. So it's worth the test to see if everything runs smoother with it disabled.
Honestly, there's really no reason to keep NetBIOS around these days. We let it go back in 2001 and it made things easier by removing extra layers like `ip helper` from routers. The only cases where you'd need NetBIOS might involve some very old software that doesn't play nice with DNS, but that's pretty rare these days.
Yeah, I say just disable it. Unless you're running some really outdated software or playing DOS games at odd hours, there's no need for it. It's actually easier to analyze your network traffic with tools like Wireshark to find any old protocols sticking around. Just make sure to test everything thoroughly if you decide to kill off mDNS and LLDP too!
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