Latest Technologies: Common Internet File System

India Latest Technology - NANO

The much awaited Tata small car, which is giving sleepless nights to its rivals, was finally unveiled at the Auto Expo 2008. The small car, which is priced at Rs100, 000 (2,500 dollars), has been named Nano. According to the Tata Motors, the Nano will hit the Indian roads later this year. Ever since the Tatas announced their intention of developing the 1 lakh car (touted as people’s car), the auto industry experts have been raising doubts over the price, features, safety and specifications of Tata Nano. Have a look at specifications and other aspects of the Tata Nano, the four door mini-hatchback.

Looks & Dimensions of Nano: Keeping in mind the young age group, the Tata Motors has strived well to give the Nano a contemporary and stylish look. The snub-nosed small car derives inspiration from Fiat 500 and Nissan Micra. As far as dimensions of the car are concerned, Nano is 3.1 metres (10.23 feet) long, 1.5 metres wide and 1.6 metres high and can accommodate four to five people.

Engine: The small car sports a two cylinder 623 cc, 33 horsepower rear mounted multi-point fuel injection (MPFi) petrol engine. Tata claims that the car can touch the top speed of 105 kms.

Fuel Efficiency: Engineers at Tata Motors have designed an efficient engine that can run 20 Kms on every litre of petrol.

Pollution: Against the criticism and concerns of the environmentalists, Nano surpasses Indian regulatory requirements and Euro IV emission norms. In fact, Tata claims that the small car is less polluting than most of the bikes on Indian roads.

Safety: Tata says that they have tested the small car extensively for front, rear and side collisions and come out with a product that exceeds current regulatory requirements. The safety features of the Nano include a strong passenger compartment, intrusion resistant doors, seat belts, sturdy seats and anchorage.
Price: The base model of the car will sport a price tag of Rs 100,000 (2,500 dollars) which excludes taxes and transport costs. The high end/deluxe models will include air-conditioning and other features to be incorporated based on suggestions of the common people

Friday, March 7, 2008

Common Internet File System - CIFS

What is CIFS?
The Common Internet File System (CIFS), also known as Server Message Block (SMB), is a network protocol whose most common use is sharing files on a Local Area Network (LAN). The protocol allows a client to manipulate files just as if they were on the local computer. Operations such as read, write, create, delete, and rename are all supported – the only difference being that the files are not on the local computer and are actually on a remote server.
The CIFS protocol works by sending packets from the client to the server. Each packet is typically a basic request of some kind, such as open file, close file, or read file. The server then receives the packet, checks to see if the request is legal, verifies the client has the appropriate file permissions, and finally executes the request and returns a response packet to the client. The client then parses the response packet and can determine whether or not the initial request was successful.
CIFS is a fairly high-level network protocol. In the OSI model, it is probably best described at the Application/Presentation layer. This means CIFS relies on other protocols for transport. The most common protocol used for reliable transport is NetBIOS over TCP (NBT), which will be described in the NetBIOS chapter below. Other protocols have been used for the transport layer, however with the enormous popularity of the Internet, NBT has become the de-facto standard.
Although file sharing is CIFS’s primary purpose, there are other functions that CIFS is commonly associated with. Most CIFS implementations are also capable of determining other CIFS servers on the network (browsing), printing, and even complicated authentication techniques. None of these subjects will be discussed in this document however, only the basics of CIFS file operations.

Where is CIFS?
The CIFS protocol is most commonly used with Microsoft operating systems. Windows For Workgroups was the first Microsoft operating system to use CIFS, and each Microsoft operating system since then has been able to function as both a CIFS server and client. Microsoft operating systems use CIFS for remote file operations (typically mapping network drives), browsing (via the Network Neighborhood icon), authentication (NT and Windows 2000), and remote printer services. It would be fair to say the core of native Microsoft networking is built around its CIFS services.
Because of Microsoft’s large corporate and home user base, the CIFS protocol is found virtually everywhere. Flavors of the Unix operating system also implement a CIFS client/server via the Samba program. Apple computers also have CIFS clients and servers available, which might make CIFS the most common protocol for file sharing available.