What protocol is under Windows file sharing, UDP or TCP? TLS?

Question

As we all know we can share file on Windows, then what is the transport layer protocol to access this sharing file? Is UDP or TCP? Can we use TLS? Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello,

When sharing files on Windows, the transport layer protocol used is TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is not used for file sharing on Windows. As for TLS (Transport Layer Security), it is not used for file sharing on Windows by default, but it can be configured to use TLS for secure file sharing.

Best Regards,

Hania Lian

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Answer 2

Current versions of SMB use TCP (over port 445).

SMB 3.x does not rely on TLS - it has its own encryption mechanism (so effectively it's just as secure as HTTPS).

More at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/file-server/smb-security

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hth

Marcin