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Cannot Connect to Windows NT Server with Many Shares

Article ID: 160807 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q160807

SYMPTOMS

You may experience problems connecting to a share on a Windows NT server from a Windows 95 workstation if the Windows NT server has a large number of shares.

Specific symptoms may include:

When you attempt to make a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) connection to the share, you may receive the following error message:
The folder "\\server\share" does not exist.
When you attempt to connect to the share in Windows NT Explorer, you may receive the following error message:
Access Denied
In Microsoft Word version 7.0 for Windows 95, when you change the default document location to a folder on the server, the File Open operation does not work. The current folder reverts to the desktop or the root folder of drive C. This may occur whether the share on the server is accessed using a mapped drive letter or a UNC connection.
While using shortcuts you cannot get to lower level directories on the Windows NT server. If you double click the shortcut - it connects to the servers share and displays folders, but when you double click the lower level folder all it does is refresh the upper level share points directories thus creating a shortcut loop.

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In some scenarios, Windows 95 determines whether a share exists on an SMB server by getting the list of shares from the server, then searching for the specified share name in the data returned. The SMB protocol used to get the list of shares is limited to a total data size of 64K. If the list of shares is too large, not all names fit within the 64K data block. If the specified share is not included in the partial list returned, the operation does not work.

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RESOLUTION

To work around this issue, use one or more of the following methods:

Reduce the number of shares on the Windows NT server.
Reduce the length of the share names on the server.
Reduce the length of the comments on the shares.

This issue is resolved by the following updated file for Windows 95 (retail and OSR1), and later versions of this file:

   SHELL32.DLL  version 4.00.955  dated 9/30/96  817,664 bytes

This issue is resolved by the following updated file for Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), 2.1 and 2.5, and later versions of this file:

   SHELL32.DLL  version 4.00.1112  dated 9/25/97  819,200 bytes

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Windows 95 andOEM Service Release 2 (OSR2). An update to address this problem is now available, but is not fully regression tested and should be applied only to computers experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft does not recommend implementing this update at this time. Contact Microsoft Technical Support for additional information about the availability of this update.

This issue is resolved in Microsoft Windows 98.

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MORE INFORMATION

This symptom is typically encountered if the number of shares on the Windows NT server exceeds 1,000 shares, or if the shares generally have long comment strings.

For additional information about related issues, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

160808

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160808/EN-US/ )

Profiles and Briefcase May Not Work with Windows NT Server

188206

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188206/EN-US/ )

Access Denied Connecting to Windows NT Server with Many Shares

For additional information about issues resolved by updates to this component, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

161100

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/161100/EN-US/ )

File May Be Truncated When Copied to a Full Network Drive

150215

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/150215/EN-US/ )