IPX May Not Work When Packet Size Is Larger Than Receive Buffer

ID: Q187939

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

SYMPTOMS

IPX may not work, or data corruption may occur, with a receive-packet driver when a token ring packet spans multiple receive buffers. Data corruption is likely when the Receive buffer size on the client Windows NT computer is smaller that that of the Maximum transmit size of the Windows NT server computer.

NOTE: The data transfers may seem to work but the data is corrupted if the NDIS packets are large enough to be split among receive buffers.

The IPX protocol allows packets to span multiple receive buffers, but only token ring packets are large enough to do so. NDIS 4 token ring drivers, such as Ibmtrp.sys, that support the ReceivePacket function may encounter this problem.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

You can work around this problem by setting the maximum transmit size on server computers to equal to or smaller than the receive buffer sizes of client computers.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.

Additional query words: Olicom ISA 16/4 (oc-3118) TR PCI MAU

Keywords : NT4SP4Fix kbbug4.00 kbfix4.00.sp4
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug