[Samba] Fundamental question about the SMB protocol

[Andrew Bartlett]

"Hall, Ken (ECSS)" wrote:
> 
> I realize this may seem like a lame question, but I'm not an expert on the SMB/CIFS protocol, so I'd be very grateful if someone could help me.
> 
> We're considering putting a Samba server on a Linux/390 system, but the new networking mechanism under IBM's VM OS doesn't support multicasting yet.  I understand that the SMB/CIFS protocol depends,
> at least partially, on multicasting, so I'm wondering if what I want to do is even possible.

Samba relies on broadcasting for interopablity with clients that don't
use a wins server.

> Is it possible to use Samba on a LAN that doesn't support multicast?  If so, what capabilities would be lost?  The clients would be on the other side of a router-type system.

Just set a common wins server and all will be good, broadcast traffic is
no longer required.

Andrew Bartlett

-- 
Andrew Bartlett                                 abartlet at pcug.org.au
Manager, Authentication Subsystems, Samba Team  abartlet at samba.org
Student Network Administrator, Hawker College   abartlet at hawkerc.net
http://samba.org     http://build.samba.org     http://hawkerc.net