Need for explanation: NetBIOS over TCP/IP on VMware network adapter disturbs access to network shares

Need for explanation: NetBIOS over TCP/IP on VMware network adapter disturbs access to network shares

Some time ago nearly all workstations in our team (Windows XP SP2) exhibited intermittend but frequent delays when accessing shares on the network. Typically the first access to a share which hadn't been accessed for some time resulted in a nearly frozen workstation for up to 30 seconds. Then everything started working fine again.