Common Internet File System
Advantages:
– Ubiquitous in modern Microsoft Server and Workstation
systems
• Originally derived from SMB
– Also used by Windows as a high level Communications
Protocol
• Remote Printing, Network Management & Authentication etc.
– CIFS is a Stateful Protocol
• Provides better security, supports file locking
– Also supported on most Unix & Linux platforms
• Samba - development started 1991 - still growing
Disadvantages:
– Server failure resiliency over unreliable connections
Windows systems support the CIFS protocol. There is no additional software
to purchase and install. Administration is consistent with other Microsoft
networking tools.
CIFS is also available on Unix servers via products like Samba. These
products enable Unix servers to share networked file systems with PC clients
using CIFS.
CIFS is stateful, which means protocol handling software retains some
knowledge of the work in progress. From a practical perspective being stateful
allows for higher security (by utilizing server side authentication) and also
makes mandatory file locking easier to implement, but it isn’t as robust when
the connection is either congested or intermittent.