FPNW Returns Time Stamp with 60 Seconds to Clients

• Microsoft File and Print Servers for NetWare version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you save a file where the seconds portion of the time stamp is 59 to a folder on a Windows NT server, File and Print Services for NetWare (FPNW) clients see the seconds portion as 60 instead.

Some applications may return error messages stating that the file is invalid or corrupt. This problem has occurred with Microsoft Project 4.0.

CAUSE

When calculating the time stamp, FPNW server rounds up odd second time stamps but does not propagate the carry. For example, 16 minutes and 59 seconds should be rounded up to 17 minutes and 0 seconds (and not 16 minutes and 60 seconds).

MORE INFORMATION

The MS-DOS FAT file system and the NCP protocol are using two bytes to represent both a date and time stamp. Of the 16 bits of the time stamp, 5 bits are reserved for the hour (0-23,) 6 for the minute (0-59,) and 5 for the second (0-29) part of the time stamp.

There can only be time stamps in two seconds granularity. This is the reason why FPNW has to do this calculation. The fix now calculates the same way as the Server Message Block (SMB) server does.

RESOLUTION

Obtain the hotfix mentioned below.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K