RAS Clients Unable to Connect to NetWare Servers

 Last reviewed: August 26, 1996
Article ID: Q128783
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5

SYMPTOMS

When you dial into a Windows NT server or workstation with Windows NT Remote Access Service (RAS) clients, you are unable to connect to one or more NetWare servers. You receives error 53 - "the network path was not found" when trying to connect to or view a NetWare server's shares.

CAUSE

The NWSAP Agent builds and maintains the table of servers by listening to all SAP broadcasts (socket 452) on the network. When the RAS server service is installed, this table is used to satisfy SAP requests from RAS clients. If the NWSAP Agent receives an error (for example, a buffer overflows), the thread responsible for handling the SAP broadcasts and maintaining the table may terminate. When this happens, new entries are no longer added to the table and any current entries are aged and removed from the table. The default time for aging a SAP entry in Windows NT 3.5 is five minutes. Consequently, a new SAP broadcast must be seen within the timeout period for the server to always be available to RAS clients.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.5. A supported fix is now available, but is not fully regression-tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the service pack release containing this fix. Contact Microsoft Product Support Services for more information.

KBCategory: kbnetwork kbbug3.50
KBSubcategory: ntinterop NTSrvWkst
Additional reference words: 3.50 prodnt time out

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Last reviewed: August 26, 1996
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