Peer Resource Sharing Basics

The two peer resource sharing services in Windows 95 — Microsoft File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks — are 32-bit, protected-mode networking components that allow users to share directories, printers, and CD-ROM drives on computers running Windows 95. File and Printer Sharing services work with existing servers to add complementary peer resource sharing services.

For example, a NetWare network and its users will realize the following benefits by using File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks:

• Users can share files, printers, and CD-ROM drives without running two network clients. This saves memory, improves performance, and reduces the number of protocols running on your network. (Under Windows for Workgroups, Novell users had to also run a Microsoft network client to take advantage of peer resource sharing.)
• Security is user-based, not share-based. You can administer user accounts, passwords, and group lists in one place (on the NetWare server) because File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks uses the NetWare server's authentication database.
• Users running VLM or NETX clients can access shared resources on computers running Windows 95. The computer running Windows 95 looks as if it is just another NetWare server if it uses SAP Advertising, as "Using File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks" later in this chapter. The computer providing File and Printer Sharing services can handle up to 250 concurrent connections.
• You can add secure storage space and printing to the network inexpensively, while using familiar NetWare tools to manage these resources. You can reduce the load and improve the performance of NetWare servers by moving selected shared resources to one or more computers running File and Printer Sharing services. This allows you to manage load balancing for users without adding a new NetWare server.
• You get a scalable, high-performance 32-bit peer server that uses multiple 32-bit threads, the new Windows 95 VFAT 32-bit file system, 32-bit NDIS drivers, 32-bit IPX/SPX-compatible protocol, and the burst-mode protocol.

Similar benefits are available when you use File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. You can also use either share-level security or, on a Windows NT network, user-level security to protect access to peer resources.