One of the fundamental reasons for connecting computers on a network is to enable them to exchange files and data. Windows NT supports standard facilities for transferring files and sharing data between Windows NT and UNIX systems.
Included with Windows NT itself are both client and server versions of File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP makes it possible for Windows NT computers to exchange files with diverse systems, particularly UNIX systems.
Where more advanced data sharing capabilities are required, computers running Windows NT can access data on UNIX systems (including data on remotely mountable file systems, such as NFS, RFS, and AFS) through Microsoft LAN Manager for UNIX (LMU), an implementation of Microsoft Windows networking for servers running UNIX variants. LMU is based on server message blocks (SMBs), a set of protocols developed by Microsoft that are now part of the X/Open standard.
Finally, a number of third-party companies (including NetManage, Beame and Whiteside, Intergraph, and Process Software) have developed versions of Sun's Network File System (NFS) for Windows NT. NFS is a widely used tool for sharing files among various UNIX systems.