Samba related question.

p.lussier at comcast.net p.lussier at comcast.net
Thu Feb 12 23:22:21 EST 2004


In a message dated: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:58:35 EST
Ed Lawson said:

>I think this means for purposes of using Samba I could forego the DNS,
>enable WINS in SAMBA

This would be the most expedient method, and likely the the simplest.

>Since he currently has a small office running Windows peer to peer, I
>assume there is no WINS server involved.

While I fully understand the use of the term 'peer to peer' to imply 
that there is no central server utilized for file storage or 
printing, I must state emphatically that:

   There is no such thing as a 'peer to peer' network.[1]

I think this has to be one of the worst misnomers ever perpetrated by
the OS Marketing world (i.e. Novell).

Any system which provides a service is a server.  Any system which 
accesses those services is therefore a client.  

[1]  Unless you consider the idea that someone somewhere may set up a 
network of computers which are in no way interdependant, and do not, 
for any reason connect to each other for anything.  In that case, you 
have a network of isolated computers, all of which are 'peers'.  But 
then, it's a 'peer' network, not 'peer-to-peer', since there is no
'to' communication.  Of course, if you allow for all of these 'peers' 
to do anything useful like connect to the internet or exchange files, 
they've just become a client/server network.  So, in it's true 
definition, 'peer' networks are networks of stand-a-lone computers.
In which case, there's no need to network them :)
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
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