Winsock Apps Fail on First Attempt at NetBIOS Name Resolution

After applying Service Pack 2 to Windows NT 4.0, socket applications fail to complete connections on the first attempt. Simply retrying the connection works. This problem has been seen with Internet Explorer, as well as with FTP applications.

When an attempt is made to resolve a NetBIOS name, the request goes out on all interfaces, including RAS. RAS completes right away, indicating timeout, and Registration and Name Resolution (RNR) cancels all outstanding requests. Instead, RNR needs to wait for all outstanding requests to complete.

The only time you will see this problem is when you are using a winsock app on a computer attempting to connect to a server on a remote network, with no DNS servers configured, RAS installed, and NETBT node type set as M- node. You will see the problem only on the first try, and subsequent attempts to resolve the name will work.

The following are workarounds for this problem:

• Configure a Domain Name Service (DNS) server.
  
  -or-
• Change the NetBT node type to anything other than M-Node.
  
  -or-
• Remove RAS.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):