NETWORK CONFIGURATION

Planning the NetBIOS network
The IBM® Lotus® Domino® network is compatible with NetBIOS, a set of IBM session-layer LAN services that has evolved into a standard interface that applications use to access transport-layer network protocols. Domino supports the NetBIOS interface on Microsoft® Windows® systems over the following transport protocols: TCP/IP (on systems running TCP/IP) and NetBEUI (supplied with all Microsoft network products).

Note Although you can add some NetBIOS services to Linux® and UNIX® systems, NRPC communication does not use them.

For detailed system requirements for using NetBIOS with Lotus Domino, see the Release Notes.

Deciding whether to use NetBIOS services

Including NetBIOS in the Domino network has both benefits and risks. The benefits are as follows:


The risks of using NetBIOS involve the security of the file system on Domino servers. Depending on the access permissions of the operating system and on the transport protocol being used, NetBIOS name and file services might allow users to see or access the server's file system. When a server provides NRPC services, mitigate this risk by disabling the NetBIOS name and file services (SMB/CIFS) on the system so that the system's name cannot be seen over the network. Other IBM® Lotus® Notes® and Domino systems can still find the Domino server because Lotus Domino has its own NetBIOS name service to propagate and register the Domino server's NetBIOS name, but access is secure because it is controlled by the authentication and certification features in NRPC.

If the system on which you run Domino requires NetBIOS name or authentication services, mitigate the security risk by isolating the NetBIOS services. Install an additional NIC on the system for NetBIOS over a private administration network, and disable NetBIOS on the NIC that the Domino server uses.

How to tell if NetBIOS is active on a system

The following are indications that NetBIOS is active:


Note On Linux® and UNIX systems, the SAMBA server service (Windows file server) can offer Server Message Block/NetBIOS or Common Internet File System/IP access, or both.

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