Proxy Server Does Not Close Connection After Timeout if Internet Explorer Window Is Open

ID: Q210695

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.02, 4.0, 4.01 for Windows 95
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.02, 4.0, 4.01, 4.01 Service Pack 1, 4.01 Service Pack 2, 5 for Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

SYMPTOMS

The Proxy Dialout connection may stay open past the vaule set in the Connection Timeout properties if your computer is configured as follows:

You enable the Proxy Autodial setting and set the "Idle seconds before hanging up" setting in the RAS connectoid properties to any valid value.

Proxy dials out by starting Microsoft Internet Explorer on any client computer.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because the Auto-disconnect feature detects that there is indeed traffic being passed over the connection.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, ensure that Internet Explorer is not causing the connection to stay open. Either close Internet Explorer on all clients when you are done using the Internet or set the browser to display a blank or internal Web page.

MORE INFORMATION

The browser may be running code in the background, depending on the currently displayed Web page. There may be a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tag on the Web page which is set to refresh the page in a period of time shorter than the disconnect timeout value. This behavior causes the pages to remain open and prevents the modem from hanging up.

Proxy Server or Remote Access Service (RAS) has no way to determine if you requested this traffic. To test for automatic refreshing, manually hang up the phone and see if Autodial tries to reopen the connection. You can also look in the Proxy server logs as another method of determining what is causing this issue. The Proxy server logs display the requests being made and which client is making the request. The Proxy logs also indicate if the request is an active cache request.

REFERENCES

For additional information about how to troubleshoot Auto-disconnect issues with RAS dial-out connections, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q138365 How the Autodisconnect Works in Windows NT

Q197801 Multicast Packets Prevent Successful Autodisconnect

Q153944 RAS Server Fails to Autodisconnect Inactive RAS Clients With TCP

Q181431 How Windows NT RAS Handles Auto Disconnect

Q181407 Troubleshooting Proxy RAS Autodial and Autodisconnect

Additional query words: 5.00

Keywords : kbdisplay
Version : WINDOWS:2000,3.02,4.0,4.01,4.01 Service Pack 1,4.01 Service Pack 2,5; winnt:4.0
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbbug