Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!claris!apple!lenoil
From: lenoil@Apple.COM (Robert Lenoil)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: Net Bios Available?
Message-ID: <12969@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 28 Jun 88 17:21:39 GMT
References: <94300005@hcx1>
Reply-To: lenoil@apple.apple.com.UUCP (Robert Lenoil)
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 29

In article <94300005@hcx1> Rick Davis (rickd@hcx1.SSD.HARRIS.COM) writes:
>
>Pardon me if this is naive question; LANs, and _especially_ IBM PC's are
>not my forte'.
>
>The question:  are there any commercial realizations of the Net Bios
>Protocol (currently, I hear, at the RFC phase -- Request for Comment)?
>Net Bios is supposed to be some sort of magic that allows networked users
>to access a common file or DBMS with record level locking.

NetBIOS is not magic; it's an IBM-defined session level protocol (it also
offers datagram service, but I digress) invented for the original IBM PC LAN.
It is commercially available in IBM's (and many other vendors') PC network
products.  But please don't confuse file and record locking with NetBIOS; the
former is provided to applications via standard DOS file system calls, and is
irrespective of the underlying network.  For example, AppleShare PC, a product
available from Apple that allows PC workstations to access Apple file servers,
fully supports the DOS file and record locking calls but does that on top of
AppleTalk network protocols instead of NetBIOS.  Applications don't know the
difference.  A small number of DOS applications bypass the file system and
roll their own protocols on top of NetBIOS, but the vast majority (including
all DBMS products that I know of) stick to the DOS interfaces (as recommended
by Microsoft) and have nothing to do with the NetBIOS.  To summarize, if file
and record locking are your only concern, then you want a LAN product that is
compatible with the DOS 3.1 networking calls; NetBIOS compatibility is a
separate (and less important) issue.

Robert Lenoil
Apple Computer, Inc.
Network Systems Development Group