TECHNICAL BULLETIN 
                                Bulletin 1-251 
                          Date:  September 26, 1989 
 
                   Updated NetBIOS for NetWare Version 2.1x 
 
  NETBIOS.EXE has been updated.  The new NetBIOS utility has a file size of 
  21,219 bytes and is dated 7-20-89.  The utility is available on NetWire. 
 
  The following list describes the changes and enhancements to this utility. 
 
        o   The number of NetBIOS sessions specified in the SHELL.CFG file 
            become active immediately without an adapter reset. 
 
            Previously, the default number of NetBIOS sessions available was 
            ten without a SHELL.CFG file.  The number of active sessions was 
            six.  If more sessions were needed, the adapter had to be reset. 
            If the adapter was reset but the SHELL.CFG file was not present, 
            ten sessions became available.  If a SHELL.CFG file was present 
            and it contained the statement NETBIOS SESSIONS=xx (where xx is  
            the number of NetBIOS sessions), that number of sessions would be 
            opened when the adapter was reset. 
 
       o    The number of local names per workstation has increased from 16 
            to 26. 
 
       o    The maximum number of NetBIOS sessions per workstation available 
            has increased from 100 to 250. 
 
       o    The default number of sessions per workstation (no SHELL.CFG 
            statement) has increased from 10 to 32. 
 
       o    The minimum number of sessions and commands available is four per 
            workstation. 
 
       o    A packet is now sent to the corresponding workstation when a 
            session is aborted, that is, the partner in a session is now  
            notified of the ABORT status. 
 
       o    The time out on the HANG UP command is now 20 seconds.  This 
            includes the time used to complete pending session sends.  This 
            places an upper boundary on the time to close a session. 
 
       o    Add Name now returns the appropriate IBM error when duplicate 
            names are detected.  
 
       o    The session status command no longer affects the status of hung 
            up or aborted sessions. 
 
       o    Broadcast datagrams and datagrams to group names now get sent to 
            every known cached network where members of datagram groups are 
            located.  To avoid confusion, broadcast datagrams are not globally 

            broadcast.  Previously, the broadcast datagram went to the first 
            workstation found.  The datagram would not be received by any 
            other member of the group. 
 
       o    The NetBIOS "ABEND Free IPX Block Failed" message previously 
            occurred in situations where it should not have.  Only three code 
            paths can now cause this ABEND; all three point to legitimate 
            causes for the error. 
 
       o    NetBIOS will now look for two new parameters in the SHELL.CFG 
            file.  These new options are  
 
            NETBIOS INTERNET=ON/OFF  (ON is default) 
            NETBIOS COMMANDS=n       (n can be from 4 to 250; default is 12) 
 
            Setting the internetwork flag to OFF can be advantageous if 
            NetBIOS is not expected to cross any bridges.  Wait times can 
            be significantly reduced. 
 
            The number of commands needed may vary between applications.  In 
            most cases, the default is sufficient.  However, if a NetBIOS 
            error 22h should occur, the user should consider increasing this 
            parameter.  Most applications will trap this error and simply 
            retry if a NetBIOS command is unavailable.  In this case, 
            increasing the number of commands would improve application 
            performance.  Anyone needing to know specifics on this should 
            contact the software application developer to find out how many 
            commands they might require.