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Corporate.Net
Workshop

Internet File Systems: WebNFS And CIFS

WebNFS And CIFS Inside Web Browsers
Plans are to implement WebNFS and CIFS as operating system-level clients and as clients built into Web browsers. The OS-level clients will allow access to the server in the same fashion as access to a local drive. In the case of WebNFS, client software offerings will be available from many vendors for a variety of platforms, including Sun Microsystems' PC-NFS, Hummingbird Communications' NFS Maestro and packages from several Unix vendors.

CIFS OS-level clients will be built into Windows operating systems. CIFS clients for non-Windows operating systems are very scarce and often available only from small companies, such as Thursby Software Systems, who se DAVE product is a CIFS client for Macintosh.

WebNFS and CIFS files will also be accessible through URLs in Web browsers. Sun and Netscape Communications Corp. have announced that WebNFS support will be built into an upcoming release of Netscape Communicator, as well as Sun's own HotJava browser. But don't hold your breath for Microsoft Internet Explorer's integrated WebNFS support.

The most recent CIFS specification will undoubtedly make its way into Internet Explorer, and Microsoft plans on overloading the file nomenclature. For example, a URL for a CIFS-hosted file would be "file://server.wherever.com/pathname." CIFS support in Netscape is uncertain, though running Netscape on Windows platforms would result in the "file://" URL being treated as a local file. It's likely the CIFS client could pick it up at the operating system level.