smb clients and performance
Peter Blake
ppb at baloo.tcp.co.uk
Mon Oct 6 05:47:13 GMT 1997
On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Steve Jones wrote:
>
> On Sep 29, 1:45pm, Darrin M. Gorski wrote:
> Subject: Re: smb clients and performance
>
> > MS Cleints will broadcast even if there is no samba server (for example,
> > you use NT instead). That's the default method of resolving names. It is
> > not, however, all that taxing on the network. We have over 800 MS clients
> > on 25 subnets, and we can use Samba, AND NT servers (not to mention
> > PCNFS) with no throughput problems.
>
>
> You say that this is the default behaviour. But can this
> be configured otherwise? If I understand correctly,
> the plan is to abandon netBEUI in order to forego the
> broadcasting of these clients. In other words, do these
> clients *always* behave this way under NT or is there another
> mode of operation?
A PC running WFWG 3.1x with the native networking enabled will broadcast,
when connected to an ethernet, whether there is a server within earshot or
not.
>
> This raises another question or two (please excluse
> my ignorance). Do MS clients such as winfile the NET
> commands in the DOS box always use netBEUI for netBIOS or
> can they use TCP/IP instead (I have a limited understanding
> of protocols used by MS)? My understanding has been that
> netBIOS can sit atop either netBEUI *or* TCP/IP. But, even
> if this is true, will the MS clients work that way. More
> to the point, will they cease to continually broadcast.
>
It you install TCP/IP (from M$), then the SMB (aka CIFS?) protocol can be
carried by TCP and UDP frames. (Is this in addition to any raw mode,
anybody?).
I have observed (with tcpdump) that M$ servers (and samba) will compete
for election at regular intervals of a second or so.
If WINS is disabled in favour of DNS, does the name-related broadcasting
by an M$ client stop?
---
Peter Blake
ppb at hft.co.uk
ppb at baloo.tcp.co.uk
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