RAS: ClientsPerProcess Registry Entry

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5

SUMMARY

Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server version 3.5 have a new registry entry, ClientsPerProcess, that describes how many NetBIOS names are added to a Remote Access Service (RAS) server before a new process is spawned.

MORE INFORMATION

When RAS clients connect to the Windows NT version 3.5 RAS server, the client's NetBIOS names are added to the server. A RAS client will have a NetBIOS Name for each local area network (LAN) the gateway is active on (by default, all of them). The average client will have 6 or more, NetBIOS names. Windows NT Server version 3.5 supports 255 RAS clients, which translates to 1500 or more, NetBIOS names. However, NetBIOS only supports 254 names for any given process.

To solve this problem, Windows NT version 3.5 starts a new process for every "x" NetBIOS clients (x being the value of ClientsPerProcess). Therefore, when the RAS server service starts, it has one process that will handle x NetBIOS clients. When the x+1 client calls in, Windows NT starts a new process to handle the next x clients.

NOTE: This does not apply to IP- or IPX-only clients. The default for this parameter is 32, which means that a new process starts when the 33rd RAS client connects. The key is located in the Registry as follows:

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          \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
                     \CurrentControlSet
                              \Services
                                      \RemoteAccess
                                             \ClientsPerProcess