Andrew Suffield wrote: >"Samba" (and "Windows File & Print") refers to a group of about six >different protocol variations. With each major release of Windows (and >OS/2 LanManager), Microsoft has reinvented it, because all their >previous attempts sucked. Different variations of these use different >combinations of ports. At least one of them is capable of operating >over port 445 alone. > >A modern WinXP system can talk *all* of these. You have limited >control over which it uses, even in a purely WinXP network. The exact >details of how it decides which protocol to use are secret (if anybody >at Microsoft even knows - this is uncertain, the code is reportedly >complicated and undocumented), and the internet is rife with >inaccurate speculations on the subject being presented as fact. Do not >expect it to behave sanely.
Hopefully this is an area that will be improved by the submission of documentation demanded by the EU to allow competing systems to interoperate on a level playing field - but I suspect it will take some time for various teams (particularly the Samba team) to work their way through it. I believe their first submission was along the lines of "we'll make the source code available under non-disclosure and you can work it out for yourself", which thankfully was rejected by the EU on two grounds : a) it precluded projects like Samba using any of the information obtained, and b) it was about as clear as mud ! The fact that Microsoft claims to have had 300 engineers working on it for months does back up theories that even Microsoft didn't know how it all works - which is kind of worrying when you think how much of the worlds business depends on Windows systems ! I guess those 300 engineers have spent the last few months reverse engineering the source code. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Shorewall-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/shorewall-users
