Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!RELAY-NSWC.NAVY.MIL!snorthc
From: snorthc@RELAY-NSWC.NAVY.MIL
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: NetBIOS over TCP/UDP
Message-ID: <8810191658.AA04126@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 19 Oct 88 11:49:42 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 34

What is NetBIOS used for?

A couple years ago we managed to get our first versions of PCIP
running (CMU and FTP SW).  I was sure management would be happy.
The PCs could speak the native tongue of the internet, exchange
files with various hosts running TCP/IP, even send mail.  I figured
a massive bonus would surely come my way.  No, instead it was a
swift kick.

We want TRANSPARENT file access, mail, and print services for our
PCs, said management.

So we studied PC NFS, NetBIOS/TCP, and Locus.  None of these solutions
satisfy file, mail, print services 100%.  

That however is the answer [ I think] to the question what is NetBIOS
for.  Even just as a file service, it had potential.  What choked it
for us was the memory required to make it work.  Why would anyone
want transparent file access?  Sigh.  To this day, I wouldn't want
to be held to this, but supposedly users do not want to be bothered
to log in via FTP to xfer a file.  They want the file to be referenced
as drive "F:".

These are a different breed of users than those who subscribe to
info TCP I suspect.  Anyway, that is all in the past.  The future
is my question.  I read in the OS/2 SDK for the Lan manager that it
is very MS-NET and NetBIOSy.  Assuming for a minute (big assumption)
OS/2 has some success in the marketplace, is this a boost for NetBIOS?
Will we have to take NetBIOS/ISO (NetBIOS/GOSIP in my case) seriously?

Stephen Northcutt

Caveat: there are questions that have no right answer.  Discussions of
NetBIOS tend to lead to such questions.