Unknown Nickname in the Chatroom

• Microsoft Commercial Internet System, version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

A user in the chatroom may appear with the nickname "ICxxxx:xx," where xxxx:xx are numeric characters. The user who logged on never created this nickname.

CAUSE

An identical nickname was found in the Chat network, forcing Chat Server to assign a unique nickname.

MORE INFORMATION

The following example illustrates the problem:

Suppose you have three Chat Servers in a star topology in which you have one server acting as a master and two slave servers that uplink to the master.

When the master server is down, the Chat Server network is split into two separate networks. During that time, each slave server allows identical nicknames to exist in the same chatroom, because the two slave servers do not communicate through the portal anymore.

When the master server comes back, the portal connection is reestablished between those three servers, and the network split is resolved. However, there are now identical nicknames in the same chatroom. Chat Server resolves the collision by assigning a unique nickname of ICxxxx:xx.

It is also possible that Chat Server creates this nickname if the client does not provide the nickname when it logs on. Comic Chat and Michat do not allow a NULL nickname, but other types of clients may.