Talk:NetBEUI Frame Protocol

Merge issue
What distinguishes this from NetBIOS? Is it one element of NetBIOS of many? or is it the critical part of NetBIOS? and if so, what is left? Or is it something distinct and not actually a part of NetBIOS?

My opinion: If the first case is true, then we should have stubs for the other bits and crosslink. If the second is true then it should be merged completely into a subsection of NetBIOS. If the third then no merge needed.


 * NetBIOS was originally an API for network applications (Network Basic Input/Output System), providing services to those applications. It's not a protocol.


 * There's a protocol, sometimes called the NetBIOS Frame protocol and sometimes called the NetBEUI Frame protocol, which runs atop IEEE 802.2 LLC, that implements those services. NBT also implements those services, as do some other protocols running on top of, for example, Novell's IPX as well as the OSI transport protocol.


 * In "Using NetBEUI with Windows NT", Microsoft refer to the NetBIOS Frame protocol and the NetBEUI Frame protocol, and speak of "the IBM NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI) 3.0 specification".


 * The IBM document AnyNet: Sockets over SNA NetBIOS over SNA Installation and Interoperability says "OS/2 LAPS provides a communication interface between NetBIOS and IEEE 802.2 called NetBEUI (NetBIOS Extended User Interface). NetBEUI also provides the LM10 interface and some additional functions. It is implemented as a device driver which is internally named NETBEUI$", which could be read as saying NetBEUI is either a service interface between NetBIOS and 802.2 or the protocol (NetB{IOS,EUI} Frame) implementing that service. It also says, however, "The NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI) is an application program interface for NetBIOS", which could be read as saying it's an API for clients of NetBIOS.


 * From browsing various documents found by Google, I'd say that, most of the time, NetBEUI appears to refer to the protocol running atop 802.2 that implements the NetBIOS services. I'd suggest that we have NetBEUI, NBF, NetBIOS Frame, NetBIOS Frame Protocol, NetBEUI, and NetBEUI Frame Protocol all refer to a single page describing that protocol, at least until somebody finds a definitive statement that "NetBEUI" is something other than the protocol. We should also move the stuff in the NetBIOS page that refers to NBF into the NBF page - NetBIOS doesn't specify a protocol, it just specifies services. Guy Harris 10:18, 24 December 2005 (UTC)