NWLNKSPX May Reset Connection With Out-Of-Sequence Packet

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51

SYMPTOMS

Client connections may be dropped or reset when you do a query against a Windows NT server running NWLNKSPX.

CAUSE

When an application requests data from an application running on a Windows NT server, the server will send multiple data packets to the client workstation after receiving the request from the client station.

If the client fails to send an acknowledgment (ACK) packet within 0.6 seconds, the server will retransmit the same data packet again. If the workstation then sends an ACK packet to acknowledge the initial data received from the server, the destination address of the ACK packet will zero out, and the server will drop the ACK packet and try to retransmit the same data packet again until the retry count is exhausted.

RESOLUTION

NWLNKSPX has been changed to ensure that packet sequencing is checked and the remote ACK address is not dropped.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 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

Additional query words: 3.50 3.51 prodnt spx ipx

Keywords : ntprotocol NTSrvWkst
Version : 3.50 3.51
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :