What is netbiosd?

You may see netbiosd in Activity Monitor, especially if your Mac is on a network with Windows computers.

What is netbiosd?

netbiosd is the NetBIOS name service daemon. NetBIOS is an older networking protocol used mainly by Windows for network name resolution and browsing. macOS includes netbiosd so that your Mac can be seen by Windows computers on the network and can browse Windows file shares.

What does it do?

netbiosd handles:

• Registering your Mac's NetBIOS name on the local network
• Turning NetBIOS names into IP addresses
• Letting Windows machines find your Mac for file sharing
• Browsing Windows workgroups and domains

Is it needed?

If you share files between your Mac and Windows computers on a local network, netbiosd helps with discovery and name resolution. But modern SMB file sharing often works without it if you connect using IP addresses or DNS names directly.

Does it use many resources?

No. netbiosd is very light. It sends the odd broadcast packet on the local network for name registration and resolution.

Can you turn it off?

You can turn off NetBIOS in System Settings, then Network, then your connection, then Details, then WINS by removing any WINS setup. But this may make your Mac less visible to Windows computers on the network.

Should you worry?

No. It is a normal macOS networking process. On networks without Windows computers, it does very little. On mixed networks, it helps your Mac work well with Windows file sharing.

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