> I have noticed that there are no packages for NetBEUI, just SMP over
> TCP/IP or IPX. I also noted that someone mentioned that NetBEUI is a MS
> proprietary interface.
>
> Have I inferred correctly that what is meant here is that NetBEUI is that
> to develop NetBEUI support requires a license for MS, and that is why
> there is no support, and hence there WILL be no NetBEUI support?
Nope, that's not it. The NetBEUI specs can be purchased from IBM (not
Microsoft). It's really not much more than a thin layer on top of 802.2
LLC class 2 (i.e., reliable connection protocol). Nobody has bothered
because
1) implementing and debugging the 802.2llc2 finite state machine would be
boring (there's a start in net/802/llc.c though)
2) MS is deprecating NetBEUI because it is unroutable and hence unscalable
The not-so-nice thing about thing about NetBIOS-on-TCP/IP (NBT) is that
client configuration is more complicated than it is for NetBIOS-on-IPX
and NetBEUI. However, DHCP in the short term and IPv6 in the
medium-to-long-term may narrow this gap.
Integration with Microsoft's emerging enterprise networking architecture
(with Kerberos and LDAP) is, imho, more interesting--but it's not entirely
clear yet to what extent Microsoft's particular spin will be documented.
Michael