It is unrealistic to expect users to know where all the resources are and for administrators to maintain them. Techniques to organize network resources include stand-alone services, directory services, workgroups, and domains. Novell uses directory services in itsNetWare 4.x operating system. Directory Services Network directories are similar to telephone directory Yellow Pages. Resources are grouped logically to make them easier to locate.
Users can search adirectory for information or browse the directory in a sensible fashion.
Directory services can be used to organize the resources on extremely large LANs. They now market StreetTalk as a directory service to integrate various network platforms. X.500 is an international standard for directory service. It currently is not implemented in any LAN products. NDS is based on X.500, but not entirely compliant with the standard.