INFO: Winsock TCP Connection Performance to Unused Ports

Last reviewed: January 20, 1998
Article ID: Q175523

The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:

  - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.50, 3.51, 4.0
  - Microsoft Windows 95

SUMMARY

This article discusses how the Winsock implementation of TCP on the various Microsoft platforms handles socket connections to ports that do not have a server listening to them. It also describes the performance-related considerations and how to adjust them to suit your needs.

MORE INFORMATION

When a process creates a TCP socket in the Microsoft Winsock layer and issues a connect() call to some host and port number, the TCP protocol performs its standard "three-way handshake" of a SYN packet, acknowledged by the target host with ACK/SYN, and a final ACK from the initiating client. However, per the TCP specifications stated in RFC-793 (Transmission Control Protocol), a reset (RST) might be generated if the SYN attempt is addressed to a host which exists but the port is unused. This is best described by the following RFC quote from page 35:

   Reset Generation

   As a general rule, reset (RST) must be sent whenever a segment arrives
   which apparently is not intended for the current connection.  A reset
   must not be sent if it is not clear that this is the case ...

   If the connection does not exist (CLOSED) then a reset is sent
   in response to any incoming segment except another reset.  In particular
   SYNs addressed to a non-existent connection are rejected by this means.

   Reset Processing [page 36]

   ... In the SYN-SENT state (a RST received in response
   to an initial SYN), the RST is acceptable if the ACK field
   acknowledges the SYN.

Upon receiving the ACK/RST client from the target host, the client determines that there is indeed no service listening there. In the Microsoft Winsock implementation of TCP, a pending connection will keep attempting to issue SYN packets until a maximum retry value is reached (set in the registry, this value defaults to 3 extra times). Since an ACK/RST was received from the target host, the TCP layer knows that the target host is indeed reachable and will not double the time-out value in the packet's IP header, as is standard during connection attempts with unacknowledged SYNs. Instead, the pending connection will wait for the base connection's time-out value and reissue another SYN packet to initiate a connection. As long as an ACK/RST packet from an unused port is received, the time-out value will not increase and the process will repeat until the maximum retry value is reached.

This behavior may result in poor performance if for some reason a process repeatedly issues connect() calls to ports with nothing listening there, resulting in the error WSAECONNREFUSED. Note that with other implementations of TCP, such as those commonly found in many UNIX systems, the connect() fails immediately upon the receipt of the first ACK/RST packet, resulting in the awareness of an error very quickly. However, this behavior is not specified in the RFCs and is left to each implementation to decide. The approach of Microsoft platforms is that the system administrator has the freedom to adjust TCP performance-related settings to their own tastes, namely the maximum retry that defaults to 3. The advantage of this is that the service you're trying to reach may have temporarily shut down and might resurface in between SYN attempts. In this case, it's convenient that the connect() waited long enough to obtain a connection since the service really was there.

You can adjust the TCP performance-related values on Microsoft platforms. For WinNT, it is recommended that you obtain the white paper "Microsoft Windows NT Server: TCP/IP Implementation Details," which is available from:

   ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-docs/papers/tcpipimp2.doc

It contains the complete listing of NT TCP registry values. Of particular interest is the key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
   Key         : TcpMaxConnectRetransmissions
   Value Type  : REG_DWORD - Number
   Valid Range : 0 - 0xFFFFFFFF
   Default     : 3
   Description : This parameter determines the number of times TCP will
                 retransmit a connect request (SYN) before aborting the
                 attempt. The retransmission time-out is doubled with each
                 successive retransmission in a given connect attempt
                 (except in the situation discussed above). The initial
                 time-out value is three seconds (since an ACK/RST was
                 received in the case above, this is irrelevant).

For additional information on the Windows 95 TCP registry entries, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q158474
   TITLE     : INFO: Winsock TCP connection performance to unused ports

Of particular interest is the key:

   Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP
   Key         : MaxConnectRetries
   Value Type  : DWORD - 32 bit number
   Default     : 3
   Description : Specifies the number of times a connection attempt (SYN)
                 will be retransmitted before giving up. The initial
                 retransmission time-out is 3 seconds (irrelevant in
                 the above case), and it is doubled each time (the
                 case above is an exception) up to a maximum of 2 minutes.

You need to reboot after adjusting these registry values.

WARNING: Modifying these values affects any and all TCP outgoing connection requests from the affected machine. If all of the TCP activity on the machine has little latency and little distance to travel round-trip, reducing this as low as zero (though not recommended) will make no difference. However, should applications or connection attempts fail with great regularity with the standard Winsock errors and the target remote servers are known to be available, these registry entries should be suspect. If this is the case you may be required to raise the maximum retries some such that TCP will double the SYN packet's time-to-live value in its IP header at successive retries until it has a long enough life-span to reach the target host and receive an ACK/SYN.

REFERENCES

RFC-793, Transmission Control Protocol, September 1981

Whitepaper, Microsoft Windows NT: TCP/IP Implementation Details, 1996 Knowledge Base article Q158474

Additional query words: winsock tcp connect performance
Keywords : NtwkMisc NtwkWinsock
Version : WIN95;WINNT:3.50,3.51,4.0
Platform : Win95 winnt
Issue type : kbinfo

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Last reviewed: January 20, 1998
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