Cannot Connect to Server with 15 Characters and Period in Name

 Last reviewed: August 13, 1997
Article ID: Q172594
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release versions 2, 2.1

SYMPTOMS

When you are using Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 or 2.1 (OSR2) and you attempt to connect to an SMB server with a 15-character name that contains a period as one of the characters, you may receive the following error message: 

   The network name cannot be found.
If the server name contains only 14 characters with a period, or 15 characters with no period, the operation proceeds normally.

CAUSE

There is a problem with the Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks (VRedir) that is included with OSR2. The problem occurs when the client parses server names that contain a period; server names that contain a period are treated as too long if they exceed 14 characters in length.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, rename the server so that the name does not contain a period, or is shorter than 15 characters.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 and 2.1. An update to address this problem is now available, but is not fully regression tested and should be applied only to computers experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft does not recommend implementing this update at this time. Contact Microsoft Technical Support for additional information about the availability of this update.

Additional query words: 95
Keywords : osr2 win95 kberrmsg kbnetwork kbfixlist
Version : WINDOWS:95
Platform : WINDOWS

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Last reviewed: August 13, 1997
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