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Quick CIFS Help Index

	What is Common Internet File System (CIFS)
	What operating system or software do I need to use CIFS
	What are the advantages of using CIFS over FTP or NFS
	How can I mount my home directory as my local drive
	What other CIFS services do you provide
	Where can I learn more about CIFS
	Get more info on CIFS services or comment about this page

What is CIFS

CIFS is an acronym for Common Internet File System. It is a new proposed standard for an Internet File System, based on the file system used on Microsoft Networks. It is being targeted by Microsoft to replace both FTP and NFS file system services and allows to directly mount CIFS remote system as a directory or drive, hence you can you can transfer files to or from remote site just by using you regular copy command or file manager.

What are the advantages of CIFS

The advantages of CIFS can be better demonstrated if we compare it with two other internet file transfer protocols - FTP and NFS.

Features	CIFS	FTP	NFS
Can be mounted as your local drive	YES	NO	YES
Supports Encrypted Passwords	YES	NO	NO
Optimized for modem dial-up connections	YES	NO	NO
Supports Unicode file names	YES	NO	NO
Allows secure anonymous access	YES	YES	NO
No Extra Software required for file transfers	YES	NO	YES
No extra drivers required for Windows 3.11*	YES	n/a	NO
No extra drivers required for Windows95	YES	n/a	NO
No extra drivers required for Windows NT	YES	n/a	YES
No extra drivers required for OS/2*	YES	n/a	YES
No extra drivers required for UNIX*	YES	n/a	YES
Fault Tolerance - connection can be auto-restored	YES	NO	YES
Used for both Internet and LAN networks	YES	NO	NO

* Windows for Workgroups 3.11, OS/2 WARP Connect 3.0 and 4.0 and most new flavors of UNIX do not require extra drivers, for previous versions you may need to download extra free software, such as Microsoft LANMAN client for Windows and OS/2 or smbfs for Unix.

As you can see, CIFS combines advantages for of both FTP and NFS. Many companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, SUN are promising full support for CIFS and since it is still an open standard, more new features are expected.

How to mount my home directory as a local drive

CIFS feature that you are likely to find most useful is the ability to mount your home directory as a local drive. This allows you to directly edit HTML files on you web page (or other files in the home directory) as if they were on you hard drive. You do not have to use FTP transfer or some other publishing wizard program to update you home directory, and since any changes you make appear immediately, it is very easy to preview you new web page.

By now you are probably want to try this feature but are wondering if it is easy to setup - it is not!. Here is the command you should use in MS-DOS (under Windows 3.1, Windows95 or Windows NT) to mount you home directory as drive H:

NET USE H: //prime.biz1.net/username

Substitute you username instead of "username" in this example, also make sure you do not already have a hard drive or CD-ROM on drive h. If you are using Window95 OSR2 or WIndows NT 4.0 that only accept connections using encrypted passwords, you will need to setup encrypted CIFS password first. To enable encrypted cifs password call support line or telnet to unix.biz1.net, go to unix prompt (door to unix) and then enter command
"cifspasswd --set" (Note: double "-")

You can also mount CIFS directories using Windows95 (or WindowNT) Explorer, Windows 3.1 File Manager, or OS/2 FileManager. Here is an what to do if you have Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 Explorer:

and then:

In older Operating Systems, you may be required to setup a WINS server. This is done when you are setting your network preferences. IP address of BizNet WINS server is: 216.151.192.1. If you are using Unix (and you are root or admin) with samba based smbfs (linux, freebsd uses it),.then type:
smbmount //prime.biz1.net/username /mnt -s BIZNET -U username -P password

This mounts your home directory for user 'username' with password 'password' to directory /mnt of your unix workstation). A user smb mounting program (Linux, BSD, HPUX) also exists at http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/smbfs/smbmount-1.3.tar.gz (warning: experimental alpha code!).

Other CIFS services

In addition to your home directory, several other resources are also available for free from BizNet through CIFS:

File Library (FTP Archive): To mount BizNet ftp archive on drive x:, use command "NET USE X: //prime.biz1.net/archive"

Wuarchive (Washington University FTP Archive): To mount BizNet ftp archive on drive x:, use command "NET USE X: //prime.biz1.net/wuarchive"
This option lets you access the biggest Internet FTP archive through our NFS->CIFS bridge, however since NFS is slower than CIFS, it is not designed for dial-up connections, access to this archive will be slower than regular CIFS connection - about 2/5 of your actual internet connection (as compared to about 3/4 of your internet connection for standard cifs link).

FAX Services: This lets you access our Internet fax system.To mount fax as a printer on port lpt2 use command "NET USE LPT2: //prime.biz1.net/fax"
With this system you can send faxes to anybody in St.Louis and to many areas in USA for free and without using your fax machine or faxmodem. To send this fax you have to install postscript driver for this printer (if you operating system does not have printer driver for 'PostScript printer' use driver for AppleLasterwriter printer)

	When printing, the first page should contain one line with "Fax-Nr: faxnumber", substitute recipient's 10 digit fax number instead of 'faxnumber', for to send fax to BizNet use "Fax-Nr: 3149940957", If fax is to be sent to somebody in St.Louis area (314xxxxxxx), then our fax machine will deliver this fax, otherwise our system will try to route it to fax routing systems in the target area, if there is no free fax system for that area, the fax will be returned and put in your mailbox as e-mail attachment.
	In addition to standard fax delivery, your fax can also be delivered as e-mail attachment. To do this, put line "Fax-Nr: email@address.com" on the first page. Here email@address.com should be substituted by recipient's e-mail address. Symbol "@" is required, even if sending to somebody on BizNet, for example to send fax to support@biz1.net use line "Fax-Nr: support@biz1.net"
	For additional setup fee of $5 (and 0.12/page if applies) our fax printer can be set to deliver anywhere in USA, even if there is no free fax service in that area. With this service if there is a free fax router in that area, fax will be delivered without additional fee, otherwise this fax will be delivered directly by our fax machine and with additional fee of 0.12/page. Special services to Canada are also available, sent e-mail to info@biz1.net for details.

Additional Information on CIFS

	Microsoft Official Page on CIFS: http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/prog/cifs/
	Discussion about CIFS on samba (unix smb/cifs) server home page: http://samba.anu.edu.au/cifs/
	Free Unix SMB& CIFS Server, main page: http://samba.anu.edu.au/

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Last modified: October 03, 2000

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