Configuring SPX Watchdog Timers in Windows 95

 Last reviewed: September 23, 1997
Article ID: Q174202
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release version 2

SYMPTOMS

Programs using the IPX/SPX-compatible protocol (NWLINK) to communicate over a wide area network (WAN) or other slow link may not connect or may experience dropped connections. Analysis of network traffic may reveal that an SPX Watchdog timer has expired on the remote node. This symptom can occur particularly if the watchdog parameters on the server are configured to non-default values.

CAUSE

SPX Watchdog timers are not configurable for the IPX/SPX-compatible protocol in Windows 95 and Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2).

RESOLUTION

You may be able to work around this issue by reconfiguring the SPX watchdog timer parameters on the server to their default values.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95 and OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2). 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.

MORE INFORMATION

According to Novell documentation (TID #2910905), the following timers are among the Watchdog timers that are configurable for Novell's IPX/SPX protocol:

SPX Verify Timeout

This parameter controls how long the watchdog waits after it has sent a packet before it sends a system packet to keep the connection alive.

SPX Listen Timeout

This parameter controls how long the watchdog waits after it has received a packet before it sends a system packet requesting an acknowledgement so it will know the connection still exists.

Send Timeout

This parameter controls how long IPX waits for an acknowledgement of a sent packet.

For additional information about Novell's implementation of SPX timers, please consult Novell or your Novell NetWare documentation. 

Keywords          : osr1 osr2 win95 kbnetwork kbfixlist
Version           : WINDOWS:95
Platform          : WINDOWS

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Last reviewed: September 23, 1997
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