Guide to Gateways for LAN Servers
Chapter 5, Configuring and using NetBIOS

Viewing NetBIOS status

Viewing NetBIOS status

The nbstatus command provides NetBIOS status. For example, it can rreport the status from LAN Manager client or from a remote LAN Manager server. LAN Manager client must be started and have at least one connection to a server before NetBIOS status can be obtained.

The output from nbstatus resembles the following display: 

   Adapter status for adaptor 0, name *:
   ID: 08 00 14 51 62 09 (655364)  Jumpers 0  Selftest 0  Version 1.0
   Time up 5:51
   Packets sent:             2176       CRC errors:                 0
   Packets received:        99060       Alignment errors:           0
   Retransmitted packets:       0       Collisions:                 0
   Resources exhausted:         0       Aborted transmissions:      0
   Ncbs:      Free  :  45 of  48;  maximum configurable:  48
   Sessions:  In use:   2 of  48;  maximum configurable:  48
   Adapter packet size:  2048
   Local name table (2 names):
   Name            Soc Num Status
   KIWI            x00   3 0x4
   

Session status for adaptor 0, name *: name num 255, # sessions 3, rcv dg=1, rcv any=0 LSN State Local Name Soc Remote Name Soc rcvs sends 1 ESTAB KIWI x00 CHERRY x20 0 0 2 ESTAB kiwi x73 cherry x73 1 0

The information in the first part of the display shows NetBIOS activity and gives information useful for troubleshooting at the NetBIOS level. If there is noise on the line, for example, NetBIOS may have several aborted transmissions or retransmitted packets. Additional information appears if the client is active.

The next item, the local name table, shows the names that have been added to NetBIOS. The fields are as follows:

Name
Name in use

Soc
Numeric value of the 16th character of the name. By convention, uppercase names are used in the SMB filesharing protocol, and lowercase names are used by other LAN Manager utilities. The significance of the Soc field is defined by the NetBIOS application. The SMB protocol uses this field to indicate a particular service or function. For example, the LAN Manager client uses the machine name in uppercase with a Soc value of 0x00 (ASCII code for the null character) to connect to the remote filesharing server.

Num
Number assigned to the name by NetBIOS when the name was added to the table.

Status
Status of the name that NetBIOS has added or is adding to the name table. Valid numbers have the following definitions:

0x0
NetBIOS is trying to register a name in the local name table

0x4
NetBIOS has successfully registered this name in the local name table

0x5
NetBIOS has de-registered this name from the local name table

0x6
NetBIOS has detected a duplicate name in the local name table

0x7
NetBIOS has detected a duplicate name with de-register pending

0x84
name is a group name

The last item in the nbstatus output is the session status table. The header of this section shows the number of session table entries used, including NetBIOS LISTENs, and the number of RECEIVE DATAGRAMS and RECEIVE ANY NCBs that are posted to the NetBIOS. The session status table shows the following information:

LSN
NetBIOS local session number (LSN) for the session

State
state of the session. Possible states are:

LISTEN
Waiting for a connection

CALL
Attempting to connect

ESTAB
An established connection

CLOSING
Connection is in the process of closing

CLOSED
Connection is closed

ABORT
Connection has been aborted

Local Name
Local name associated with the session

Soc
Numeric value of the 16th character of the name

Remote Name
Server name associated with the session

Soc
Numeric value of the 16th character of the server name

rcvs
Number of RECEIVE NCBs outstanding on the session

sends
Number of SEND NCBs outstanding on the session

The nbstatus display indicates how many NCBs NetBIOS is using. The following line, for example, shows that three NCBs are in use:
   Ncbs:	   Free  :  45 of  48;	maximum configurable:  48
To verify this number, look at the session status table. There are one RECEIVE DATAGRAM (rcv dg=1) NCB in use, one RECEIVE NCB pending in the rcvs column, and one NCB taken by the nbstatus command itself.

To obtain adapter status from remote machines, you can use the nbstatus MACHINE command. MACHINE is the name of the remote machine in all uppercase letters.

For more information on using nbstatus, see ``Viewing NetBIOS status'' and nbstatus(LMC).