Technology reading: Quick read on CIFS

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

CIFS Common Internet File System:

CIFS is M$ way of doing network file sharing
Allows for sharing of file, directories, printers, etc...
There are protocols for service announcement, naming, authentication, and authorization
The file sharing protocol is Server Message Block (SMB.) originally developped to run over NetBIOS (now available over TCP/IP -- NBT)
NBT: three services must be implemented:
1. Name service (NetBIOS name to IP addresses mapping UDP port 137,)
2. datagram service (NetBIOS datagram delivery via UDP port 138)
3. session service (point to point connection oriented NetBIOS sessions over TCP port 139, the traditional transport for SMB.)
Communication endpoints are 16-bytes strings called NetBIOS names.
Group names can be shared by multiple clients.
SMB: Raw (naked) over TCP (port 445) or over NBT session service.

Technology reading