| Those are the basics, but there are a few more fields that need explaining. user If given as part of the URL string, the username is separated from the host field using an "at" symbol (' @ '). For example: smb://cue@cleden/corgi The user field is typically included in an SMB URL as an authentication shortcut, relieving the application from having to prompt for it. Note, though, that some SMB URL implementations support a further parsing of the user field into a username and password, e.g.: smb://cue:p%40ssw0rd@cleden/corgi This usage is considered bad practice, because it may encourage people to expose their passwords. Applications that handle SMB URLs should always prompt for a password, and should not support the use of the password field in the SMB URL. authdomain This is a further refinement of the authentication shortcut offered by the user field. The authdomain is separated from the user name with a semicolon, as shown in the syntax expression above. As the name suggests, the authdomain represents the authentication domain in which the username is valid. The authentication domain may be either a W2K or an NT Domain name. port This field, delimited by a colon , specifies the TCP port number to which to connect. context The NBT layer presents some unique problems with regard to the design of a URL scheme. URLs, of course, are intended for use on the Internet, which is an IP-based network. Internet naming is handled by the DNS, and the addresses are all of the IPv4 or IPv6 variety. NBT adds a virtual NetBIOS layer, which brings with it a whole 'nother addressing system plus a set of mechanisms to map the NetBIOS layer onto IP. The mapping requires a bit of context. In particular, the client needs to know: -
the IP address of the NBNS (WINS server), if there is one, -
the CALLING name (NetBIOS source address) to use, and -
the CALLED name (NetBIOS destination address) to use. Clients typically gather this information from a configuration file, local host name, or destination name, but these values can be overridden using the context field of the SMB URL. The context field is set up as a URL query string. It must be at the end of the URL, separated from the rest of the string by a single question mark character. The context is given as a set of keyword/value pairs, separated by semicolons. For example: smb://camarllyn/nell?called=nellie;calling=cue;nbns=10.9.7.3 The keywords defined in the fourth revision of the SMB URL IETF Internet Draft are: There is little reason to specify a Workgroup name in the context when it can be specified in the host field instead, so that one may be removed from the list. Others which may be added are: -
BROADCAST , to specify the broadcast address for B-mode operations, -
NODETYPE , to indicate B, P, M, or H mode behavior, and -
SCOPEID , to specify the Scope ID. Putting the Scope ID into the context instead of including it as part of the NetBIOS name in the host field would greatly simplify the semantic interpretation of SMB URLs.  |
