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Author Topic: Why is SMB run over NetBIOS?  (Read 4056 times)

davidmccormack

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Why is SMB run over NetBIOS?
« on: January 10, 2008, 02:25:14 AM »
Ever since Windows 2000, it has been possible to run the SMB file sharing protocol directly over TCP/IP (port 445). The DNS-323 however is configured to do it the old way, i.e. it only runs SMB over NetBIOS-on-TCP/IP (port 139). This is a considerably more complicated arrangement with poorer performance and much more to go wrong. It also prevents the DNS-323 from being accessed from machines where NetBIOS is not enabled, as many Vista users have discovered. Even in the case of non-Vista boxes, network administrators are increasingly setting DHCP parameters so as to disable support for NetBIOS owing to security concerns about it (or perceived security concerns).

So my questions are: why on Earth does the DNS-323 take the pre-2000 approach to SMB? Is this something that will be addressed in the forthcoming 1.04 firmware? And finally, where is the 1.04 firmware? (I'm holding off on a PS3 until it comes out and gets the DLNA thumbs up!)
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davidmccormack

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Re: Why is SMB run over NetBIOS?
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2008, 08:32:25 AM »
Looks like I spoke 3 weeks too soon! The upgrade to firmware 1.04 has taken the DNS-323 from Samba 2.x to 3.x. In so doing, the key SMB protocol now runs directly on TCP/IP instead of using NetBIOS over TCP/IP. This has made a remarkable difference to performance in my case, and means that I can now disable NetBIOS again and return to the 00's. Thanks D-Link!

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