NFS vs SMB

Cluster centers on debates comparing NFS and SMB (Samba) as network file systems, discussing performance, reliability, cross-platform compatibility (Linux/Mac/Windows), encryption, and alternatives like WebDAV.

➡️ Stable 0.5x DevOps & Infrastructure

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#3044

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Top Contributors

chasil (26) jra_samba (22) sipofwater (21) jabl (19) DonHopkins (14)

Keywords

AFP WinXp CIFS VLAN NFS MTU linuxjournal.com NAS archiveorange.com IMO nfs smb drive posix windows letters protocol connections permissions cargo

Sample Comments

rcarmo • Apr 7, 2023 • View on HN

Your choice of NFS is the issue here. I use SMB (with one or two shares where I remap UIDs and masks), and it has worked well for nearly 15 years across Linux, Mac and Windows clients.

vbezhenar • Jun 3, 2022 • View on HN

What are the cases where NFS is not enough?

icedchai • Jul 15, 2022 • View on HN

Are you actually using NFS on Windows? Almost nobody does that!

mistrial9 • May 27, 2023 • View on HN

NFS and Samba are right out IMO

roeles • Oct 18, 2022 • View on HN

Should this work over NFS or SMB?

usrn • Jul 15, 2022 • View on HN

idk people do weird stuff with windows servers and nfs.

nycerrrrrrrrrr • Jul 3, 2025 • View on HN

Curious why they're using NFSv3 instead of v4?

Saris • Oct 26, 2025 • View on HN

My experience with NFS is its not very fast, compared to SMB or WebDAV

darkpuma • Jul 26, 2019 • View on HN

NFS will give you better performance if you've got a trusted LAN.

dleslie • Dec 24, 2022 • View on HN

How's the support for Samba/NFS?