Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) (01/18/91)
I would like to get information on incompatibilities between different vendors' NetBIOS implementations. As I understand it, NetBIOS is defined as an API at the session layer of the OSI model and a datagram at the data link layer of the OSI model. I have been told that there are two sources of incompatibility between different vendors' implementations of the protocol: 1) Many vendors don't follow the standard and implement NetBIOS as an emulation of the standard on top of their own proprietary protocols (e.g., Novell implements NetBIOS on top of IPX). 2) Many vendors don't interpret the semantics of the NetBIOS API the same way, with the result that a NetBIOS program written for one API does not run on other vendors' NetBIOS APIs. My questions are: 1) Are there any articles that discuss the incompatibility issue in more detail? 2) How much effort is involved in porting a relatively complex NetBIOS application so that it could run under any vendor's NetBIOS? (At very least run under Novell, Microsoft, IBM, Banyan, and LANTASTIC implementations.) 3) Does anyone know off-the-top which NetBIOS' cause the most problems and why? If I could get an e-mail or phone reference to a developer who understands these issues in more detail I would greatly appreciate that as well. Thanks, Will Estes (apple!cup.portal.com!Will)