Networking / Beginners

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Using the nbtstat Command

nbtstat is a Windows-only command that can help solve problems with NetBIOS name resolution. (nbt stands for NetBIOS over TCP/IP.) You can use any of the switches listed in Table 6-1 to specify what nbtstat output you want to display. For example, you can use an -a switch to display the cached name table for a specified computer, like this:

C:\>nbtstat -a WK07-001

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.110] Scope Id: []

	NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

	Name 			Type 	  Status
	---------------------------------------------
	WK07-001       <00> 	UNIQUE  Registered
	WORKGROUP      <00> 	GROUP   Registered
	WK07-001       <20> 	UNIQUE  Registered
	WORKGROUP      <1E> 	GROUP   Registered
	WORKGROUP      <1D> 	UNIQUE  Registered
	..__MSBROWSE__.<01> 	GROUP   Registered

	MAC Address = 00-12-3F-A7-17-BAC:\>
C:\>

Table-1 lists the switches that you can use with nbtstat and explains the function of each switch.

nbtstat Command Switches

Switch	What It Does
-a name	Lists the specified computer's name table given the computer's name
-A IP-address	Lists the specified computer's name table given the computer's IP address
-c	Lists the contents of the NetBIOS cache
-n	Lists locally registered NetBIOS names
-r	Displays a count of the names resolved by broadcast and via WINS
-R	Purges and reloads the cached name table from the LMHOSTS file
-RR	Releases and then reregisters all names
-S	Displays the sessions table using IP addresses
-s	Displays the sessions table and converts destination IP addresses to computer NetBIOS names