< protocol > (SMB) A client/server protocol that provides file and printer sharing between computers. In addition SMB can share serial ports and communications abstractions such as named pipes and mail slots . SMB is similar to remote procedure call (RPC) specialised for file system access.
SMB was developed by Intel , Microsoft , and IBM in the early 1980s. It has also had input from Xerox and 3Com . It is the native method of file and print sharing for Microsoft operating systems ; where it is called Microsoft Networking . Windows for Workgroups , Windows 95 , and Windows NT all include SMB clients and servers. SMB is also used by OS/2 , Lan Manager and Banyan Vines . There are SMB servers and clients for Unix , for example Samba and smbclient .
SMB is a presentation layer protocol structured as a large set of commands (Server Message Blocks). There are commands to support file sharing, printer sharing, user authentication , resource browsing, and other miscellaneous functions. As clients and servers may implement different versions ("dialects") of the protocol they negotiate before starting a session.
The redirector packages SMB requests into a network control block (NBC) structure that can be sent across the network to a remote device.
SMB originally ran on top of the lower level protocols NetBEUI and NetBIOS , but now typically runs over TCP/IP .
Microsoft have developed an extended version of SMB for the Internet , the Common Internet File System (CIFS), which in most cases replaces SMB. CIFS runs only runs over TCP/IP.
Just what is SMB? .
IBM protocols .
Microsoft SMB/CIFS documents .
(1999-08-08)