Dictionary.net

(CIFS) An Internet file system protocol,based on Microsoft's SMB. Microsoft has given CIFS to theInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an Internet Draft.CIFS is intended to complement existing protocols such asHTTP, FTP, and NFS.CIFS runs on top of TCP/IP and uses the Internet's DomainName Service (DNS). It is optimised to support the slowerspeed dial-up connections common on the Internet.CIFS is more flexible than FTP. FTP operations are carriedout on entire files whereas CIFS is aimed at routine dataaccess and incorporates high-performance multi-user read andwrite operations, locking, and file-sharing semantics.CIFS is probably closest in functionality to NFS. NFS givesrandom access to files and directories, but is stateless.With CIFS, once a file is open, state about the current accessto that file is stored on both the client and the server.This allows changes on the server side to be notified to theclientsthat 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).