XP Pro: understanding the 10 connection limit

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Korialstrasza

Gawd
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Jan 21, 2004
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Hey guys,
The small office I work at has 11 computers that need access to a very simple file server. They have only about 25gb of files that they need to share across the network, and that's it. They need nothing else, just access to those files on the small file server.

Now, before you go yelling for Linux, I'm the only one who knows anything about Linux among these untech savvy people and I won't be around for all that long. When I leave, they'd be doomed.

How exactly does the 10 connection max thing work in XP pro? The documents we're talking about are word, pdf, excel, and html docs. Pretty simple, but the computers will open the files off the server.

It's just kinda lame that I might have to recommend them spending so much money on SBS with 15 clients just to give 11 computers access to 25gb of .docs.

Maybe I should just configure up Samba and tell them to contract someone to maintain it when I leave.

Thanks for the education.
 
like the article says why settle with limitations when you can patch them to your needs :)
 
I'd recommend getting a WSS based NAS. It's basically a windows box, they generally can act as print servers, have some sort of backup software solution that comes with it, and most don't have any concurrent user limits.

The cheaper ones, like the Lacie NAS has a self imposed 25 user limit, but you can go with something like an Iomega which has unlimited connections.
 
ryan_975 said:
Isn't that talking about how fast connections can be made to the system? Ten new connections every second. You can still have 250 machines connected at once, it would just take 25 seconds to get them all in.
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No, it's a limit on client connections

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314882

For Windows XP Professional, the maximum number of other computers that are permitted to simultaneously connect over the network is ten. This limit includes all transports and resource sharing protocols combined
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I don't think windows 98 had that limitation.

hahaha ok just kidding ;-)

NAS may be your best bet.
 
Yea, and the article was showing you how to get around the amount of concurrent connections one can have.
 
that article is not about the numbers of concurrent connections to windows shares. It is about how many half-open connection the system will allow before queuing new connections. Two very different things
 
pallesen said:
that article is not about the numbers of concurrent connections to windows shares. It is about how many half-open connection the system will allow before queuing new connections. Two very different things
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Exactly, people confuse the two all the time.
 
Jatt5 said:
Download the MetaEdit 2.2 editor at http://download.microsoft.com/download/iis50/utility/5.0/nt45/en-us/mtaedt22.exe
Go to Administrative Tool in Control Panel and launch MetaEdit 2.2
Navigate to the key LM/W3WSVC/MaxConnections
Change the value from 10 to the number of connections you need.
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That will not work for the OP. That tool and registry key you are referring to is for IIS and TCP connections.

The 10 connection limit the OP is referring to is for windows file/print services as quoted here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314882
Per development: The connection limit refers to the number of redirector-based connections and is enforced for any file, print, named pipe, or mail slot session. The TCP connection limit is not enforced, but it may be bound by legal agreement to not permit more than 10 clients.
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This is a hard limit.
 
So what this means exactly is that no more than 10 computers can have explorer windows opened to \\server\files?

or, no more than 10 computers can open documents off of the server at the same time?
 
Korialstrasza said:
So what this means exactly is that no more than 10 computers can have explorer windows opened to \\server\files?

or, no more than 10 computers can open documents off of the server at the same time?
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Yes.

For their situation I would highly recommend getting a brand name NAS with good support and backup utilities.
 
Keiichi said:
Yes.

For their situation I would highly recommend getting a brand name NAS with good support and backup utilities.
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Let me emphasize BACKUP utilities. Preferrably something simple, automated and online. It doesn't sound like these folks will keep up the routine after you go, so I'd make damn sure before you leave that their backup needs are taken care of.

25gigs is a lot of data to lose.
 
That speedguide article is not correct. It is not a limitation of connections per second. There is no such limitation.

It is about how many connections you can make to ip adresses that doesn't respond back before the system starts to put new attempts into a queue.
 
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