Server Message Block

Server Message Block (SMB) is a client/server protocol that provides file and printer sharing between computers. In addition SMB can share serial ports and communications abstractions such as s and s. SMB is similar to (RPC) specialised for file system access.
==History==
SMB was developed by Intel, Microsoft, and IBM in the early 1980s, with input from Xerox and . It is the native method of file and print sharing for operating systems from Microsoft, where it was referred to as Microsoft Networking. , Windows 95, and Windows NT all included SMB clients and servers. SMB is also used by , , and . There are SMB servers and clients for Unix, such as and .
Microsoft developed an extended version of SMB for the Internet, the (CIFS), which in most cases replaces SMB, though CIFS runs only runs over TCP/IP.. 1999-08-08.
==Description==
SMB is a protocol structured as a large set of commands (Server Message Blocks). There are commands to support file sharing, printer sharing, user , resource browsing, and other miscellaneous functions. As clients and servers may implement different versions ("dialects") of the protocol they negotiate before starting a session.
The redirector packages SMB requests into a network control block (NBC) structure that can be sent across the network to a remote device. SMB originally ran on top of the lower level protocols and , but now typically runs over TCP/IP.
==References==
==External links==
* at Wikipedia
Category:Internet