smb clients and performance

[Darrin M. Gorski]

On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Steve Jones wrote:

> 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?

NetBEUI is being replaced because it has a small scope and is not
scalable to large networks, not because of broadcasting. NetBIOS orders
the broadcasts, NetBEUI just does what it's told (as does TCP/IP).

There are many modes of operation, you'll need to read the RFC's for a
full explaination. Look at:

http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1001.txt

See section 10: NetBIOS end-nodes

> 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.

However you have it set up is how ALL MSNET clients (DOS box or GUI) will
work.

BTW: NetBIOS can sit atop TCP/IP *AND* NetBEUI. It's not exclusive.

If you are really interested in the workings of NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP),
read the two RFC's listed above, they should shed quite a bit of light on
the subject. Expirience using it helps too.


My original point was that if you have MS clients already, adding an SMB
server (NT or Samba, doesn't matter) will not increase the broadcast
traffic from the clients. (Could actually decrease it.)


                                [Darrin]

 "I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious."
				- A. Einstein

Darrin M. Gorski, Research Computer Systems Network Support
Scientific Research Laboratories, Ford Motor Company
Internet: dgorski at ford.com | Tel/Fax: +1 (313) 248-3753