Microsoft NetBEUI

Contents:

1. What's NetBEUI
2. How to Install


What's NetBEUI

NetBEUI is a Transport (OSI Layer) protocol that serves as an extension to Microsoft's Network Basic Input / Output System (NetBIOS). Because NetBEUI was developed for an earlier generation of DOS-based PCs, it is small, easy to install, easy to implement, and very fast -- the fastest available protocol in Microsoft Networks and it is supplied with all Microsoft's network products. Because it was built for small, isolated LANs, however, NetBEUI is non-routable (see my article "Concept of Routable & non-routable Protocols), making it somewhat anachronistic in today's diverse and interconnected networking environments.

Fortunately, the NDIS standard enables NetBEUI to coexist with other routable protocols. Originally, NetBIOS and NetBEUI were tightly tied together, and considered one protocol. However, several network vendors separated NetBIOS, the Session layer protocol, out so that it could be used with other routable transport protocols. For instance, you could use NetBEUI for fast, efficient communication on the LAN segment and use TCP/IP for transmissions that require routing.

Briefly, NetBEUI's advantages include:
1. Its small stack size, which is important for MS-DOS-based computers.
2. It's speed of data transfer on the network medium (probably the fastest possible protocol).
3. Its compatibility with all Microsoft-based networks.
4. For small LANs NetBEUI is blessing.


The major disadvantages of NetBEUI are:
1. It doesn't support routing which is the only WAN-connectivity standard.
2. NetBEUI will work on Microsoft's networks only. Other networks cannot use this protocol.

How to Install NetBEUI

As mentioned in Introduction, it's one of the advantages of NetBEUI that it is very easy to install, it doesn't need any configuration, which is a major problem in Routable-protocols such as TCP/IP. Because it uses the computer names and workgroup names as the source & target address, only installing the NetBEUI is enough. There are following steps to install NetBEUI protocol:

1. Click on Start button, then Settings and finally Control Panel. 2. Double-click on Network applet icon.
Another way to reach the network applet is to right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon and choose Properties.
3. In the Network applet, find the NetBEUI named component listed in Configuration box. If not, click 'Add' button and install it.
You need to have Windows 98 Installation CD (or if you have the protocol in a floppy).
4. If installed and saw the NetBEUI in Configuration box, you have done it. Click on OK button to close the window.

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