Connection Fails Over IPX with Duplicate SPX Connection ID

• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you are using Windows Sockets to provide stream-type connections over IPX, or when you are running another program that uses the SPX protocol over IPX, a connection to a remote node may intermittently fail to be established.

Using Windows Sockets, error 10054 (WSAECONNRESET) may be returned.

CAUSE

Under certain circumstances, it may be possible for the same SPX Connection ID to be assigned to more than one active SPX connection.

This is a problem with the IPX/SPX-compatible protocol (NWLINK) included with Windows 95.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95. A fix to this problem is in development, but has not been regression tested and may be destabilizing in production environments. Microsoft does not recommend implementing this fix at this time. Contact Microsoft Technical Support for more information on the availability of this fix.

For additional information about issues resolved by updates to this component, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q145651
   TITLE     : Windows Sockets Program Generates Errors In WSIPX

MORE INFORMATION

The SPX Connection ID uniquely identifies each active SPX connection on a given node running the IPX/SPX protocol. SPX keeps track of the status of each connection by its Connection ID. If duplicate Connection IDs are assigned, SPX cannot correctly track the status of the connection and cannot respond correctly to received packets.

This symptom, although rare, is more likely to occur when a program is creating many SPX connections very rapidly.