As mentioned in Section 36.0,
Using NIS, NFS
works with NIS to make a network transparent to the user. With NFS, it is
possible to distribute file systems over the network. It does not matter at
which terminal users are logged in. They always find themselves in the same
environment.
Like NIS, NFS is a client/server system.
A machine can be both—it can supply file systems over the
network (export) and mount file systems from other hosts
(import).
IMPORTANT: Need for DNS
In principle, all exports can be made using IP addresses
only. To avoid time-outs, however, you should have a working DNS system.
This is necessary at least for logging purposes, because the mountd
daemon does reverse lookups.