Examples of these types of applications are Outlook and Exchange. Many modern database and mail applications that connect using Winsock, the Microsoft Windows implementation of TCP/IP sockets, also use host name resolution. Other examples include Internet applications such as Ping, FTP, and Telnet.

The most common example of this is a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Host name resolution resolves the names of TCP/IP resources that do not connect through the NetBIOS interface. Clients connecting to resources on Microsoft servers, typically through Windows File Manager or Network Neighborhood, most often use NetBIOS name resolution.įor additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:ġ19493 NetBIOS over TCP/IP Name Resolution and WINS There are two main sequences used in almost all cases: NetBIOS resolution and Host name resolution. Microsoft Windows clients will follow a sequence of methods in attempting to resolve a name to an address, stopping the search when it successfully matches a name to an IP address.

On a network using the TCP/IP protocol, it is necessary to convert names of resources to IP addresses to connect to these resources. The sequence of methods is different than the sequence used to resolve NetBIOS names to IP addresses. This article discusses the different methods of host name to IP address resolutions used by Microsoft Windows clients.