How Do Different Operating Systems Communicate on the Same Network?
When computers and other devices with different manufacturers, operating systems and software come together on a shared network, there is a series of industry-standard protocols that help tie them all together. In some cases, one company or another has produced such a compelling or commercially successful method of network communication that every other manufacturer has to play along just to keep a hand in the market. In other cases, a need for a true industry standard is identified and developed, and everyone else adheres to it for maximum cross-communication.
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TCP/IP
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Most local area networks operate on a version of the address and transmission protocol on which most of the Internet works. As computers advanced and became more common in the workplace, the Internet protocols of TCP/IP were adapted to work on a smaller scale, allowing high-speed and accurate data transmission in private networks of hundreds or thousands of devices. By 1995, all the major operating systems featured the option to connect through TCP/IP.
WINS
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Microsoft Windows servers offer a simple way for many other operating systems to latch onto a Windows network and take advantage of Windows-based resources such as file sharing and printing. WINS adds a layer over the basic TCP/IP structure, allowing other computers and devices to attach to Windows network resources by name rather than numerical address.
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Samba
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A free and open source solution was developed in 1992 that would allow many non-Windows platforms such as Linux, Unix and VMS to connect seamlessly to Windows resources--and vice versa. Samba, like WINS, provides a layer over TCP/IP, though in this case it mimics Windows naming and provides basic conversion to Windows protocols.
AppleTalk
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The original networking protocol for Apple Macintosh computers was called AppleTalk and featured a very simple but robust networking protocol. Unlike WINS and Samba, AppleTalk did not use TCP/IP as a framework, but many non-Apple devices supported AppleTalk integration, allowing them to transfer data between different types of networks.
Transfer Protocols
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Other protocols borrowed from the Internet can allow basic data transfer over private, heterogeneous networks that are essentially blind to the operating system requesting the data. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for instance, uses a basic TCP/IP structure to deliver data, and HyperText Transfer Protocol does the same, providing web pages and other browser-based data to various network devices. All of their syntax, structure and messaging are based on longtime industry standards that are set forth by independent governing bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which governs the HTTP standards, among many others.
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References
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