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How can I define multiple NetBIOS names for a machine?
John Savill
September 17, 1999
1 Min Read
A. A. This would be useful if, for instance, you wanted to migrate anumber of shares to a different machine and rather than having to switch allclients to the new machine instantly you could define the new machine to alsoanswer to the old machines NetBIOS name and then slowly migrate the machines.To define extra names for a machine perform the following:
Start the registry editor (regedt32.exe)
Move toHKEY_Local_MachineSystemCurrentControlSetServicesLanmanServerParameters
From the Edit menu select "Add Value"
Set the type to REG_SZ is you want one extra name or REG_MULTI_SZ if youwant more than one and enter a name of OptionalNames. Click OK
You will then be prompted for a value. Enter the other name (or names iftype REG_MULTI_SZ, one on each line) you want it to be known as and click OK.
Close the registry editor
Reboot the machine
There may be a WINS resolution problem. The entries for the additional NetBIOS names will have been dynamically added to the WINS database complete with IP number. However, a "real" server machine in the WINS dbase normally has three WINS entries, 00h, 03h and 20h. Your aliases may only have one, 03h. Therefore you may need to add static entries for the additional NetBIOS names, which created all three entries. You should now be able to ping by NetBIOS name.
There is bug when using multiple NetBIOS names on print servers, see 'Q. The additional NetBIOS name of my serverdoes not work for print services.'
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