How to check NetBIOS status of a LAN and VPN

article #956, updated 2858 days ago

To learn what is going on NetBIOS-wise on your LAN, in Windows, do this:

NBTSTAT -r

This will get you something like the below. If you have WINS active — which is essential for NetBIOS and group policy over a VPN if you don’t do IPv6 — you will see the names resolved by name server as below. If not, if names are resolved by broadcast, you don’t have WINS, and NetBIOS will not work across VPN.

    NetBIOS Names Resolution and Registration Statistics
    ----------------------------------------------------

    Resolved By Broadcast     = 0
    Resolved By Name Server   = 1187

    Registered By Broadcast   = 0
    Registered By Name Server = 6

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