Netbios Name resolution
I have been trying to figure out why my XP and win7 machines can't see each other on the network. Everything seems to work fine through regular IP addresses however using machine names fails. I found that the win7 machine could resolve the name of a vista machine but not XP. This seems to be due to LLMNR and once disable the vista machine name can no longer be resolved. It seems to me that the netbios name resolution is not working in win7 for me, nbtstat seems to confirm this. I would like to know if anybody can reproduce this: 1. Disable LLMNR via gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\DNS Client\Turn off Multicast Name Resolution = Enabled 2. See if host names for machine on your network resolve via netbios. I have netbios over TCP/IP turned on in the network settings and the TCP/IP netbios helper service is running, so I don't know what else I can do to see if it is properly enabled. Also if anyone knows a way to enable LLMNR on windows XP, which would likely bypass this problem.
January 6th, 2010 5:17am

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120install SP3 or the hotfix.
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January 6th, 2010 5:24am

Tried that, didn't work. Also vista machine x64 work perfectly fine is able to resolve names via netbios without issue only the win7 x64 machine is not working.
January 6th, 2010 5:27am

I ASSUME they are all in the workgroup.
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January 6th, 2010 7:03am

Yes they are. However I seem to have found my solution otherwise. Turns out 3rd part firewall driver (outpost) is likely buggy. Seems to be blocking netbios setting regardless of settings, even when the firewall is exited and disabled netbios was still blocked. Preventing the firewall drivers from loading with autoruns allowed netbios to function properly.
January 6th, 2010 7:40am

I have also been noticing similar problems with mixed network of Vista, Win7 and Win2008 Server R2 (development environment, with a mix of these on physical and VMWare Workstation 6.5 systems) and all configured as a single workgroup on the same subnet. Frankly going nuts trying to figure out why name resolution is completely unreliable. In my case, only one system presently has non-Windows firewall and security (that is using Norton Internet Security 2010) and I have not concluded it is a "part of the problem" as of this time. HOWEVER, following your initial queries on LLMNR I did some further research and am encouraged to try it in the next few hours. One link I came across gave a good overview (at least for me - a non-network internals guy) at http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Overview-Link-Local-Multicast-Name-Resolution.html If I am reading it correctly, it seems to imply that the name resolution issue might also be solved by dropping IPv6 protocol from each system's network configuration (my premise being his statement that LLMNR came about [because of] introduction of IPv6 - my rephrasing]. SO ... any thoughts on whether this could ALSO be addressed by simply dropping support for IPv6 from each network connection? Any adverse effects this might create??
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January 6th, 2010 7:41pm

if your network gear does not support win 7 / IP 6 yes you can turn it off.http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx
January 6th, 2010 7:47pm

Windows systems have traditionally used Netbios names for name resolution. This originally used the proprietary Netbeui protocol, but this was modified to use Netbios over TCP/IP. LLMNR is introduced in IPv6 because IPv6 does not support Netbios. So basically LLMNR will only work with new systems and IPv6. For Windows 7 to interact with legacy systems they have to use the legacy system of Netbios over TCP/IP in IPv4 and the computer browser service. Bill
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January 7th, 2010 2:59am

Thanks Bill; all these forum things looked like the old Netbios problem of many previous Windows versions. Your response prompted me to have a good look at how to set up Netbios on Windows 7 - and the important "wait an undefined time for all the computers to spot each other" :) hydro-modeller
January 2nd, 2011 12:06pm

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