jiglar

Q: What does netbiosd really do?

I'm using Activity Monitor to try to limit my Mac hogging my bandwidth. One process that's very active is netbiosd. I've looked it up (including other discussions here) and all the info I can find says that it's used for sharing folders with Windows. I've got all sharing turned off, though, and it's still running & using bandwidth.

 

What's it really doing?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Mar 23, 2016 10:55 PM

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Q: What does netbiosd really do?

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  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Mar 24, 2016 5:56 AM in response to jiglar
    Level 7 (20,819 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 24, 2016 5:56 AM in response to jiglar

    In Finder Preferences : Sidebar, do you have Bonjour computers checked. This will present a SHARING Finder side-panel entry that shows a list of Windows machines, NAS servers, etc on your network that are offering SMB connections. I believe that SMB travels over the top of the NetBIOS Session Service, and if true, would explain why yours, and my netbiosd are running right now, because it is a method to detect SMB availability.

     

    In my case, I have two NAS servers offering SMB connections, and a Western Digital TV Live unit also shows up. If there is a PC on your local network that has Sharing enabled, it will be advertising like this too.

  • by jiglar,

    jiglar jiglar Mar 24, 2016 9:35 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 24, 2016 9:35 PM in response to VikingOSX

    Thanks for the tip. I just unchecked Bonjour, even though I was seeing netbiosd active at home with all other devices turned off.

    I'm still seeing netbiosd receiving and sending packets at a huge rate. (I'm now on my work network, while other times I'd been at home.)