cifs

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Common Internet File System
CIFS

   <protocol> (CIFS) An {Internet} {file system} {protocol},
   based on {Microsoft}'s {SMB}.  Microsoft has given CIFS to the
   {Internet Engineering Task Force} (IETF) as an Internet Draft.
   CIFS is intended to complement existing protocols such as
   {HTTP}, {FTP}, and {NFS}.

   CIFS runs on top of {TCP/IP} and uses the Internet's {Domain
   Name Service} (DNS).  It is optimised to support the slower
   speed {dial-up} connections common on the Internet.

   CIFS is more flexible than FTP.  FTP operations are carried
   out on entire files whereas CIFS is aimed at routine data
   access and incorporates high-performance multi-user read and
   write operations, {locking}, and file-sharing semantics.

   CIFS is probably closest in functionality to NFS.  NFS gives
   random access to files and directories, but is {stateless}.
   With CIFS, once a file is open, state about the current access
   to that file is stored on both the client and the server.
   This allows changes on the server side to be notified to the
   clients	that are interested.

   Microsoft Overview
   
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/fileio/base/cifs_smb_protocol_overview.asp).

   SNIA page (http://snia.org/tech_activities/CIFS/).

   CIFS: A Common Internet File System, Paul Leach and Dan Perry
   (http://microsoft.com/Mind/1196/CIFS.htm).

   IETF Specification. CIFS version 1
   (ftp://ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-leach-cifs-v1-spec-01.txt).

   (2003-03-12)