Disabling NetBIOS

[Wings_of_Azrael]

I've recently disabled NetBIOS, as I've always had its ports blocked in my firewall anyway. I also read that NetBIOS is on the verge of becoming totally useless, and disabling it reduces network overhead. Since disabling it, my connection has been the same and I've retained all functionality online. The thing I don't understand is why it is still used. Also, are there any people out there who have encountered adverse effects as the result of disabling NetBIOS?

[phalkon30]

I'm pretty sure its required for NT based kernals to communicate with 9x.

At my first LAN party we had to enable it to get the XP machines to work with the 98 machines (although ME never did play nice)

[madnick]

Its still used because its enabled by default and the average user doesn't disable it.

And because if you want to browse the shared files of another networked computer with netbios on you need to have it yourself. Our home network uses netbeui, but I need to enable netbios every time I lan with friends.

[rainbowdemon]

On the subject of disabling. If I removed MS autorun settings from the registry, would it bugger up anything else? I am running Windows 2000 Professional.

[Malakai1911]

Originally posted by rainbowdemon
On the subject of disabling. If I removed MS autorun settings from the registry, would it bugger up anything else? I am running Windows 2000 Professional.

Disabling autorun is fine.