NetBIOS is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. The NetBIOS API allows applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model.
NetBIOS name
Each computer running Microsoft Windows has a NetBIOS name; you can view/change it on the identification tab in Control Panel -> Network. Various services & client tools, including Network Neighborhood and NET USE, use NetBIOS names. The NetBIOS name is specified when Windows networking is installed/configured. In order to connect to a computer running TCP/IP via its NetBIOS name, the name must be resolved to an IP address (the NetBIOS name-IP address resolution is often done by WINS - NetBIOS Name Server). A computer's NetBIOS name is often the same as that computer's host name (see below), but it doesn't have to be.
Host name
A Windows machine's NetBIOS name is not to be confused with the computer's host name. Each computer running TCP/IP (whether it's a Windows machine or not) has a host name (also sometimes called a machine name). You can view/change it on the DNS tab in Control Panel -> Network -> TCP/IP -> Properties Host names are used by applications such as telnet, ftp, web browsers, etc. In order to connect to a computer running the TCP/IP protocol using its HOST name, the host name must be resolved into an IP Address (the host name or FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)-IP address resolution is typically done by something called DNS - Domain Name System/Service). Changing a computer's Host name does not change its NetBIOS name.
