SFoskett
Dabbler
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2016
- Messages
- 37
I would like to suggest that the FreeNAS team consider renaming "CIFS" to "SMB". Or at least adding mention of "SMB2" to the user interface and documentation.
By way of background, CIFS properly refers only to the original 1990's-era protocol supported by the original Samba. Microsoft began moving away from that name (and that protocol) about a decade ago, preferring calling the protocol "SMB" instead. Today, SMB2 (and increasingly SMB3) are the dominant protocols with many systems (including Mac OS) no longer supporting SMB1/CIFS at all. To be clear, SMB2 should not be called CIFS any more than IMAP should be called POP or TLS should be called SSL. They're similar but not the same thing.
The name change has been a bit controversial in the storage industry, with companies like NetApp continuing to say "CIFS" when they mean "SMB2", but that's changing. Increasingly, storage companies are saying "CIFS/SMB" or just "SMB". The former is proper if (as in FreeNAS) the CIFS stack is still supported.
By way of background, CIFS properly refers only to the original 1990's-era protocol supported by the original Samba. Microsoft began moving away from that name (and that protocol) about a decade ago, preferring calling the protocol "SMB" instead. Today, SMB2 (and increasingly SMB3) are the dominant protocols with many systems (including Mac OS) no longer supporting SMB1/CIFS at all. To be clear, SMB2 should not be called CIFS any more than IMAP should be called POP or TLS should be called SSL. They're similar but not the same thing.
The name change has been a bit controversial in the storage industry, with companies like NetApp continuing to say "CIFS" when they mean "SMB2", but that's changing. Increasingly, storage companies are saying "CIFS/SMB" or just "SMB". The former is proper if (as in FreeNAS) the CIFS stack is still supported.
