The
Network File System (NFS) is a client/server application
that lets a computer user view and optionally store and
update file on a remote computer as though they were on
the user's own computer. The user's system needs to have
an NFS client and the other computer needs the NFS server.
Both of them require that you also have TCP/IP installed
since the NFS server and client use TCP/IP as the program
that sends the files and updates back and forth. (However,
the User Datagram Protocol, UDP, which comes with TCP/IP,
is used instead of TCP with earlier versions of NFS.)
NFS was developed by Sun Microsystems and has been designated
a file server standard. Its protocol uses the Remote Procedure
Call (RPC) method of communication between computers. You
can install NFS on Windows 95 and some other operating systems
using products like Sun's Solstice Network Client.
Using
NFS, the user or a system administrator can mount all or
a portion of a file system (which is a portion of the hierarchical
tree in any file directory and subdirectory, including the
one you find on your PC or Mac). The portion of your file
system that is mounted (designated as accessible) can be
accessed with whatever privileges go with your access to
each file (read-only or read-write).
NFS
has been extended to the Internet with WebNFS, a product
and proposed standard that is now part of Netscape's Communicator
browser. WebNFS offers what Sun believes is a faster way
to access Web pages and other Internet files.
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