The native Windows network file sharing protocol is the preferred protocol for Windows clients.ĪFP is clearly superior to SMB or NFS for Mac OS 8.1-OS X 10.8 clientsĪFP is the native file and printer sharing protocol for Macs and it supports many unique Mac attributes that are not supported by other protocols. However it is incompatible with Windows clients, and is useless for Mac file sharing clients due to missing features, and compatibility and performance problems with Mac apps. NFS is good for UNIX server-to-server file sharing. And mobile users will appreciate a native app for server access and file sharing to their devices.

In addition, remote users should be able to securely access server documents via web browser. With the release of OS X 10.9 “Mavericks”, Apple fully supports both SMB2 and AFP.

So AFP is the best protocol for all Mac clients through OS X 10.8, SMB is the standard for Windows clients, and NFS is perfect between UNIX servers. But for the best performance, and 100% compatibility, the native client file sharing protocol is the right choice. In an intranet, network clients have several options, such as AFP, NFS and SMB/CIFS, to connect to their file server.

Native file sharing protocols always win out SMB and NFS file sharing for network clients