-//--**--//--xx--//--**--//--xx--//--**--//--xx--//--**--//--xx--//--**--//-
               .o (( Fun with Windoze Networking by Wizdumb )) o.
 -//--**--//--xx--//--**--//--xx--//--**--//--xx--//--**--//--xx--//--**--//-

Windoze will not allow certain characters in your NetBIOS name when setting it
through the control panel, but does allow you to use those same characters
quite happily if you just set it in the registry. I played with a few values
and got some interesting error messages...

,----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| NetBIOS Name | NT4 | W98 | Error Message (Parsed NetBIOS Name)             |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| FOO          | Yes | Yes | None (FOO)                                      |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| ..           | No  | Yes | NT4 - The parameter is incorrect (..)           |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| .\FO.\O      | No  | No  | NT4 - The parameter is incorrect (FO.\O)        |
|              |     |     | W98 - Cannot enumerate a non-container (O)      |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| FOO.\        | No  | No  | NT4 - The parameter is incorrect (none shown)   |
|              |     |     | W98 - Standard error message (none shown)       |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| FOO.\BAR     | No  | No  | NT4 - The parameter is incorrect (BAR)          |
|              |     |     | W98 - Cannot enumerate a non-container (BAR)    |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| .\\FOO       | No  | No  | NT4 - The parameter is incorrect (\FOO)         |
|              |     |     | W98 - Cannot enumerate a non-container (FOO)    |
|--------------+-----+-----+-------------------------------------------------|
| .\\\\FOO     | No  | No  | NT4 - The parameter is incorrect (\\\FOO)       |
|              |     |     | W98 - Cannot enumerate a non-container (FOO)    |
`----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

There can be no doubt that there's some very buggy parsing being done on these
somewhere, and chances are there's something interesting to be found with
this. I only had a day to play around with this, and I don't have a computer
of my own, let alone a network of my own, so don't expect me to take this any
further, for now at least.

Windoze will happily cough up a list of characters which are not allowed -
start playing with those. And be careful of having an overly long computer
name coz VNetSup will freak out and you'll get recurring general protection
faults in Explorer.Exe when you boot up.

That's all from now. Some more interesting Win32 trix on their way from
yours truly next issue. Booyakasha.