communication between 2 NT stations over the LAN

Hi,
What are the available solutions to send a message to another NT station over the network ?
I know about TCP/IP sockets
I'm looking for a highier level solution (independent from the network protocol)
I've heard about NETBIOS. is there an API for NETBIOS ?
are ther other solutions ?
thanks in advance

Named pipes are another solution.
I've heard rumors that MS plans to kick out NetBIOS in Windows 2000.