Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

CHAPTER 21 WORKING WITH REMOTE SERVERS AND NETWORKS 367
Figure 21-2. Connecting to a server by name in the Finder
Connecting to a machine in the Finder will use the default protocol. Connecting directly
allows you to explicitly specify the protocol. Valid protocol declarations include the following:
afp: The Apple Filing Protocol is the standard protocol used for addressing remote volumes
in the Finder. Although it is Apple’s standard, AFP support is available for many operating
systems, including Windows, NetWare, and several flavors of UNIX and Linux. If you do
not specify a protocol, afp is assumed.
at: AppleTalk is an obsolete networking protocol that is included for backward
compatibility. Previous versions of AFP used AppleTalk behind the scenes, but modern
AFP uses the Virtual Network Computing standard on top of standard TCP/IP.
nfs: The Network File System protocol is a remote file access protocol developed by Sun
Microsystems. It is similar to AFP and is available for several flavors of UNIX, as well as
for operating systems such as NetWare, Windows, and, of course, Mac OS X.
smb: The Server Message Block protocol is the Windows equivalent to AFP. From within
Windows, it’s referred to simply as Microsoft Windows Network. The SMB protocol is
sometimes called Samba, though technically Samba is a free reimplementation of SMB and
not simply another name for the same thing.
cifs: The Common Internet File System, despite its name, is actually just a rebranding of
SMB to reflect changes Microsoft made to the protocol since its invention at IBM. It was
submitted, but not accepted, as an Internet standard. It can be considered to be the same
as SMB.
http: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the standard protocol of the World Wide Web.
Taking advantage of the ubiquity of the Web, HTTP is used for transporting more than
web pages. For example, the WebDAV standard is used to mount remote file systems over
HTTP. This is the same standard used when connecting to iDisk, which we’ll discuss in the
“Connecting to .Mac” section of this chapter.
https: The secure version of HTTP is not a true protocol. Instead, it simply refers to the
use of standard HTTP over a connection that has been encrypted by either the Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.
ftp: The File Transfer Protocol is a very old standard for moving files from one computer
to another. Because of its age and that it’s compatible with every known operating system,
it’s in widespread use all over the Internet.
ftps: Analogous to HTTPS, FTPS refers to the use of regular FTP over an SSL or TLS
connection.