When does the need for NetBIOS arise?

To summarize, every machine with NetBIOS will broadcast its name, IP, and any services every 60 seconds. If there is a WINS server configured they will register with the WINS server instead and the network will be much quieter, but EVERY machine needs to be configured with WINS, the ones that aren't configured will continue broadcasting every minute. NetBIOS is needed to join a domain and there are quite a few legacy apps that were designed around it and therefore need NetBIOS to function properly. Here is a short list taken directly from the above blog post link.

• Exchange 2003 with certain Outlook features
  
• McAfee Enterprise ePolicy Orchestrator
  
• Symantec Endpoint Protection
  
• Symantec Backup Exec
  
• Computer Associates AV
  

SQL

Mapped Drives Printer sharing (not published in AD)

Full credit for this information should go to the author of the referenced blog post Ace Fekay.