[linux-cifs-client] Re: CIFS not mounting Windows Shares (Adnan)

[Matt Seitz]

Steven French wrote:
> The Linux CIFS VFS client only works over TCP/IP.   None of the Linux 
> clients/servers, and few of the Unix ones support Netbios.  

It is certainly true that Linux and most UNIX systems do not support the full 
NetBIOS API.  But as you later point out, SAMBA and smbfs do support a limited 
subset of the NetBIOS/TCP protocol, just enough to be compatible with 
CIFS/NetBIOS/TCP clients and servers.

> In the past (pre-1999 especially) the Netbios Frames Protocol instead of 
> TCP/IP (in particular for the IBM and Microsoft DOS clients and for OS/2 
> and for Windows 9x and NT) would often be used.   There were cases in 
> which earlier clients could be configured to send via IPX.

There were many transports that could be used with the early DOS SMB clients and 
servers, so long as there was a driver for these transports that supported the 
NetBIOS API.