Re: [MS] CIFS: A Common Internet File System Protocol

Daniel W. Connolly (connolly@w3.org)
Mon, 12 Aug 1996 22:23:18 -0400

In message <9608122316.AA00263@pest.w3.org>, Rohit Khare writes:
>
>I can't tell what direction this is going in technically; anyone with a PC
>background want to explain why this isn't exactly eqivalent to WebNFS/NFS3's
>solution space (and why we care about either if we can fix HTTP (reliable PUT,
>etc) in time?)

CIFS is to SMB as WebNFS is to NFS.

The biggest difference (between those and HTTP) is that both have
clients in the kernel. Usually, HTTP clients are in user space.

>> CIFS is an enhanced version of Microsoft's
>> open, cross-platform Server Message Block (SMB) protocol,
>> the native file-sharing protocol in the Windows 95,

>> CIFS (SMB) has been an Open Group
>> (formerly X/Open) standard for PC and UNIX
>> interoperability since 1992 (X/Open CAE Specification
>> C209).

Dan