Sharity 3 Compared

Sharity versus Samba's smbclient

Smbclient is an FTP-like command line tool to transfer files to or from an SMB/CIFS server. Sharity, on the other hand, mounts the shared directories in the Unix file system. If you want to edit a file using smbclient, you must first copy it to your local disk, edit it and then copy it back. With Sharity, the file appears in your file system and you can open it directly.

Sharity versus NFS

NFS (Sun's Network File System) is a file sharing protocol used among Unix machines. NFS server software is available for Windows, but it is a separate installation. NFS on Windows is often plagued by file permission and performance problems. Sharity requires no modification on the server whatsoever: It mimics a Windows client. By using the SMB/CIFS protocol on the wire, Sharity circumvents the security problems often seen with NFS.

Sharity versus Samba's smbmount

Smbmount/smbfs and Sharity are pretty similar. Both mount the shared directories directly in the Unix file system. However, Sharity has the following advantages:

• Available for Solaris, AIX, HPUX, IRIX and others (smbmount is only available for Linux).
• Can browse network resources similar to Windows "Network Neighborhood".
• Permissions for mounted shares need not be determined at mount time, any user can authenticate to the server to gain access.
• Supports DFS and ACLs.
• Sharity needs no kernel module. This is an advantage on custom Linux systems such as Rackstar OS where you want to avoid changing the kernel.

Sharity versus Apple's SMB client in Mac OS X

These products are very similar, too. Both make shared directories available as network drives. Sharity's advantages over Apple's client are:

• Browsing of workgroups and servers works more reliably.
• Network drives are not disconnected after an extended sleep.
• Compatible with Windows 2003 (implements SMB signing).
• Implements NTLM, NTLMv2, NTLMSSP and Kerberos authentication.
• Supports DFS and ACLs.