neme resolution

[iddwb]

I was perusing rfc1001 and 1002 last night and noticed something that
doesn't seem to fit with the way microsoft smb servers find names.

First, the netbios name is supposed to be encoded cause per the IBM Lan
Technical Ref regarding netbios a name can be any 16 byte pattern -- non
printable characters included.  I've never seen microsoft make this
recommendation for dns resolution.  So, how does a ms smb server find a
netbios name in dns?

Second, since a netname will contain space padding up to the 15 byte, and
then a hex code for machine name, group name, workgroup name, etc., and
since ms is not encoding these names, what does the smb server actually
ask for from dns?

Third, since netbios names can by any 16 bytes, and the reversible half
ascii encoding method specified in the rfc would imply case sensitivity in
names, what does the smb server do with uppper/lower case in name
resolution?

Fourth, since a period '.' is not considered a valid character in a
netbios name (the original list of invalid characters included things like
"*", "?", "/", "\" "'"), and since it is possible the connect to a dotted
decimal notated netname via \\129.219.15.22\sharename, the requester must
be converting this ip address to a netbios name? or resolving it some
other way.  Can anyone describe the mechanism used here?

Fifth, while have haven't read the CIFS spec completely, I haven't seen
anywhere that in CIFS that changes the nature of netbios naming.  For
example, with CIFS can you partition the netbios name space like a domain
name space? 



David Bear
College of Public Programs/ASU