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From: tri...@nimbus.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: Netbios for Unix project
Date: 05 Dec 1993 10:54:26 GMT
Organization: CSLab, ANU
Lines: 135
Distribution: world
Message-ID: < TRIDGE.93Dec5215427@nimbus.anu.edu.au>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.15.21

		NETBIOS FOR UNIX PROJECT
		========================

This is an announcement of a project to produce a free implementation
of netbios for unix. The project has been underway for about a week,
but builds on a implementation that was released almost two years ago.

The project aims to produce a set of netbios modules for unix. In
particular a file/print server, a unix client and a netbios
nameserver. These modules will operate with the many commercial
netbios client implementations that exist.

You should only really join this project if you are interested in
contributing or at least giving the developers some feedback on what
does/doesn't work for you. This isn't a "final" release.

If you are interested in this project then join the project mailing
list. To do this send some mail to netbios-requ...@arvidsjaur.anu.edu.au. 
This is currently serviced by a human (me) but will be automated shortly.

To send mail to everyone on the list mail to netb...@arvidsjaur.anu.edu.au. 

The current release of the software is available via anonymous ftp on
nimbus.anu.edu.au in the directory pub/tridge/server/. The current
version is 1.5.09 and is described below.


CURRENT STATUS
==============

Currently I am working on version 1.5 of the software. It now includes
both a client and server for unix, and has been confirmed to work with
the Lanmanager for DOS client (that's what I'm using). If you don't know about
Lanmanager for DOS then you can ftp the whole package from
ftp.microsoft.com in Advsys/MSclient. Please read the licensing
information in the directory before downloading.

It should also work with other clients, and I'd like to get
confirmation from people on this so I can add them to the list.

The server currently implements (at least partially) all the smb calls
except the "message" calls. I haven't implemented the message calls as
I don't really know what to do with them. I suspect it would only be
useful if I had the netbios nameserving running anyway.

Using the lanmanager for DOS software you can mount drives and
printers, copy files, print files and generally do what you expect to
be able to do on a file/print server.

If you are using my old version (first put out nearly two years ago)
then it's probably worth grabbing the new one. The first one was
written without a spec and had LOTS of bugs. The new one supports a
lot more calls (for example printing, locking etc) and it should be
much more reliable.

The nameserver is still in it's early stages, and is included so I can
get some feedback and hopefully some patches :-) Plesae use it in
passive mode (with the -P command line switch) at the moment so it
doesn't cause any harm.

Both the client and server support changing the port number, and the
server can run as a daemon or from inetd. There are also some other
command line switches for debugging and other things.

The client is still pretty simple. It implements a `ftp' style
interface and currently supports the following commands:

get,put,cd,dir,mkdir,rmdir and del.

It certainly needs some more work on it. 

PROTOCOLS
=========

Currently the software is known to work with TCP/IP, following rfc1001
and rfc1002. One person has got it working with decnet using a
pathworks for dos client. Other protocols may be possible.

OS SUPPORT
==========

I am developing under Linux and Sunos, but it should work with at
least the following as well:

Sequent, Ultrix, AIX, BSDI and Solaris. 

TRYING IT OUT
=============

If you want to try it out with your current netbios client and don't
want to have to compile it then try connecting using your favourite
netbios software to \\arvidsjaur.anu.edu.au\public. This is probably
the worlds first "anonymous smb" site :-)

You should be able to mount this service as a drive and copy the
source files using nornal copy commands. This service does not require
a password.


TO DO
=====

Some of the things I plan to do, but would love some help with from a
few volunteers:

1) write man pages
2) VFS client implementation
3) nameservice, messaging and datagram services
4) fix bugs :-)
5) completely free DOS client
6) Xenix extensions
7) anything else??

If you want to help with any of these things then mail
netb...@arvidsjaur.anu.edu.au or me and let us know!


Help make this project a success!


Andrew Tridgell
December 1993


-- 
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Andrew Tridgell (Tridge on ICS) CSLab, Research School of Physical Sciences
Andrew.Tridg...@anu.edu.au      Australian National University (x3064)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Andrew Tridgell (Tridge on ICS) CSLab, Research School of Physical Sciences
Andrew.Tridg...@anu.edu.au      Australian National University (x3064)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-