Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!fjcp60!brinkema
From: brinkema@fjcnet.GOV (John R. Brinkema)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Is netBIOS an interface or a protocol?
Keywords: netBIOS, interface, protocol
Message-ID: <193@fjcp60.GOV>
Date: 2 Jul 89 03:16:46 GMT
Organization: Federal Judicial Center, Washington, D.C.
Lines: 39

Boy am I confused!  Is NetBIOS an interface or a protocol?  That is, is
it simply a standard network interface for PCs that is independent of
any underlying network or protocol; or does it 'evelope' the information
sent accross it assuming that there is an equivalent NetBIOS interface
on the other end that will remove the NetBIOS envelope.  This question
keeps coming back to me as I read books and articles, each document
apparently giving a different answer! [Most recently, RFC's 1001 and
1002 which clearly define a protocol, but I think only for Names, which
makes sense.]

Consider the following hetrogeneous (inter-)network setup: a client
netBIOS program running on a PC on an ARCnet Novell LAN, gatewayed to an
ethernet TCP/IP LAN with a UNIX box connected to it, running a server of
some kind, talking UNIX standard TLI.

When the client does some basic NetBIOS calls (not Name Support, which I
assume is NetBIOS's problem, unless there is a Name Server in the
(inter-)network), what arrives at the server/TLI end?  For example, if
the client does a NetBIOS 'call', what arrives at the server/TLI end?
How about NetBIOS 'Send No-Ack'?  'Send Datagrams'?  'Hangup'?  etc.

How about the other direction: server/TLI to client/NetBIOS?
====

What I am trying to do is write one server that doesn't care about where
the client is in the network, how the client talks to the network (NetBIOS
on a PC; TLI on a UNIX V box; Sockets on a UNIX BSD box); or what network(s)
or protocol(s) is(are) between the client and server.  I want to use
the 'natural' network interface for the client box; I assume that NetBIOS
is such for PC's.  I *know* that TLI is the 'natural' interface for UNIX V
boxes (whether is really is or not :-) ).

					tia: jb

In real life: John R.Brinkema, Mgr. Advance Systems Group
		Federal Judicial Center
		1520 H. St. NW
		Washington, DC 20005
		(202) 633-6400