Windows 95 Client Trap in SnaBase Using IPX on Windows NT

ID: Q173618

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft SNA Server, version 3.0 SP1

SYMPTOMS

The SNA Windows 95 client gets an application exception in SnaBase when all of the following conditions are met:

The SNA Windows 95 client is installed on a Windows NT system.

The SNA Windows 95 client is configured to use IPX/SPX as the transport protocol.

The SNA Windows 95 client is configured with a client mode of Remote and the sponsor servers are listed by server name.

The SNA Windows 95 client is configured to use bindery emulation to locate the SNA Server computers.

The application exception in Snabase.exe will generate a Drwtsn32.log file in the Windows NT root directory that will be similar to the following:

Application exception occurred:
App: exe\snabase.DBG (pid=<process id #>)
When: <date> @ <time>
Exception number: c0000005 (access violation)

In addition, the Windows NT Application Event Log will contain an event similar to the following when this problem occurs:

Event ID: 4097
Source: DrWatson
Description: The application, exe\snabase.DBG, generated an application exception error.
The error occurred on <date> @ <time>. The exception generated was
c0000005 at
address 00000000 (<no symbols>).

CAUSE

Service Pack 1 for SNA Server 3.0 added a new feature that allows the integration of SNA Server with Novell's NDS (NetWare Directory Service). This problem was introduced as a result of the NDS changes that were made to the SNA Windows 95 client for SP1. Specifically, the InitNDS() function does not clear the SNANDS32 module handle after the GetNdsTreeAndContext() call failed causing the NdsFindSnaServer() function to call a NULL pointer. The application exception in snabase.exe occurs when the NULL pointer is called.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem:

Configure the SNA Windows 95 client with a client mode of Local and use the SNA Subdomain name to locate the SNA Server computers.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the SNA Windows 95 client version 3.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This problem was corrected in the latest SNA Server version 3.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining this Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbnetwork snaipx snawin95 kbfix3.00.sp2
Version : WINDOWS:3.0 SP1
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug