Select the product you need help with

Connectivity Problems Using a FQDN of Exactly 16 Characters

Article ID: 300989 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q300989

SYMPTOMS

If you are using a Windows 2000-based computer and you attempt to connect to a share on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows 95, you may receive the following error message:

System error 51 has occurred.
The remote computer was not available.

This behavior can occur if you attempt to make the connection by using a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that is exactly 16 characters in length (including the periods). For example, the following command might generate the error message:

net use x: \\host.domain1.com

Back to the top | Give Feedback

CAUSE

A 16-character name is improperly identified as a NetBIOS name.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

RESOLUTION

Windows 2000

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/ )

How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Date       Time    Version         Size     File name
-----------------------------------------------------
6/22/2001  11:35a  5.0.2195.3769   143,024  Netbt.sys

Windows XP

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/EN-US/ )

How to Obtain the Latest Windows XP Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Date        Time   Version      Size     File Name  Platform
------------------------------------------------------------    
11/18/2001  01:11  5.1.2600.16  148,736  Netbt.sys  i386
11/18/2001  01:11  5.1.2600.16  551,552  Netbt.sys  ia64

Back to the top | Give Feedback

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Back to the top | Give Feedback

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249149/EN-US/ )

Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes

Back to the top | Give Feedback