Checking Your SMB Version

Find out how to quickly check what version of Windows Server Message Block (SMB) is being used between your computer and the server.

John Savill

April 20, 2013

1 Min Read
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Q: How can I quickly check what version of SMB is being used between my machine and the server?

A: There are now several different versions (or dialects) of the SMB protocol that were introduced with different versions of Windows:

  • SMB 1 - Windows 2000

  • SMB 2 - Windows Server 2008 and WIndows Vista SP1

  • SMB 2.1 - Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

  • SMB 3.0 - Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8

The version of SMB used between a client and the server will be the highest dialect supported by both the client and server.

This means if a Windows 8 machine is talking to a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machine, it will use SMB 3.0. If a Windows 8 machine is talking to Windows Server 2008 R2, then the highest common level is SMB 2.1.

To check which dialect version you are using, run the the PowerShell cmdlet

Get-SmbConnection 

which will show the SMB connections and the dialect that is being used. Below is a sample execution.

PS C:Windowssystem32> Get-SmbConnectionServerName    ShareName     UserName     Credential   Dialect      NumOpens----------    ---------     --------     ----------   -------      --------savdal08r2    c$            SAVILLTEC... SAVILLTEC... 2.10         1savdalfs01    c$            SAVILLTEC... SAVILLTEC... 3.00         1savdalhv01    software      SAVILLTEC... SAVILLTEC... 3.00         1

Notice in this example that connections to servers savdalfs01 and savdalhv01 are using SMB version 3.0, while the connection to savdal08r2 (which is a Windows Server 2008 R2 server) uses SMB version 2.1.

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