Using the nbtstat Utility

Using the nbtstat Utility
You’ll remember from the last chapter that NetBIOS associates names with workstations. But NetBIOS is only an upper-layer interface and requires a transport protocol. In many cases, TCP/

IP is used. You use the nbtstat utility to do the following:

• Track NetBIOS over TCP/IP statistics
• Show the details of incoming and outgoing NetBIOS over TCP/IP connections
• Resolve NetBIOS names

Because NetBIOS name resolution is primarily a Windows network issue, the nbtstat command is available only in Windows-based operating systems.

To display a basic description of nbtstat and its associated options, type nbtstat at the command line. You’ll use these options to configure the display of information about NetBIOS over TCP/IP hosts. Here are some of the switches you can use:

–a                 –A

–c                   –n

–r                   –R

–S                   –s

TIP

All nbtstat switches are case sensitive. Generally speaking, lowercase switches deal with NetBIOS names of hosts, and uppercase switches deal with the TCP/IP addresses of hosts.