Named Pipe Applications Without Network Adapter Fail

• Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
• Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5

SYMPTOMS

When you run an application that uses named pipes as an Interprocess Communication (IPC) mechanism on a Windows NT computer without network support installed, it fails to connect to the named pipe resource either locally or remotely.

RESOLUTION

For remote named pipe resources, the system must have a physical network card installed. However, for local named pipe resources, you can install the MSLoopback adapter driver for support.

MORE INFORMATION

MSLoopback driver provides the redirector for both the Win16 and Win32 named pipe applications. Windows NT provides named pipes as one of the IPC mechanisms for applications to share data either on the same computer or across the network. Named pipes are implemented as a file system. All the calls to this file system by WOW and Win32 resolve to the redirector. If there is no network adapter installed, there is no redirector available for both 32-bit and 16-bit applications, thus these applications fail.