Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!VAX.FTP.COM!jbvb
From: jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: Query on NetBIOS on TCP/IP
Message-ID: <8909111511.AA02759@vax.ftp.com>
Date: 11 Sep 89 15:11:34 GMT
References: <12445@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 22

RFC 1001/1002 NETBIOS (NETBIOS over TCP/IP) is a "session layer"
provided on top of a completely normal TCP/IP protocol stack (which
comes up to the "transport layer" but no farther).  RFC NETBIOS only
uses TCP port 139, so all the other TCP services can co-exist on the
same client or server.  Our FTP, Telnet and so forth can be used while
our PC is running NETBIOS, and the Unix SMB products can be used
simultaneously with other Unix TCP/IP applications.

In your posting, you also mention "TCP/IP over NETBIOS", implying that it
is specified by RFCs 1001/1002.  This is incorrect.  Wollongong defined
"TCP/IP over NETBIOS" in another pair of RFCs, and it is completely different
in fuction and intent.  The idea with this is that NETBIOS (using an un-
specified transport layer of its own) can transport IP datagrams from a
PC to a router, which forwards them to non-NETBIOS-using systems in the
conventional IP encapsulation.

The two specifications are so different that you could in fact run RFC
NETBIOS on top of a TCP/IP layer which was using some other NETBIOS to
forward its IP datagrams (using two different LANA numbers, of course).

James B. VanBokkelen		26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA  01880
FTP Software Inc.		voice: (617) 246-0900  fax: (617) 246-0901