Error: "You are trying to log into too many stations simultaneously."

(Last modified: 18May2006)

This document (10079272) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

fact

Novell eDirectory 8.6.2 for Windows 2000

Novell Account Management 2.1 for Windows 2000

symptom

Error:  "You are trying to log into too many stations simultaneously."

Error: " The supervisor has limited the number of user connections you may have."

The users workstation locked up and they rebooted to log back in.

The user hard-powered their workstation off.

The user didn't log-off their machine properly.

Users are logging into the Windows 2000 server running eDirectory.

Concurrent connections are being used and are limited to 1.

The Windows 2000 server is not clearing the users connection or is slow when doing so.

eDirectory is not clearing the users connection or is slow when doing so.

cause

eDirectory is not programmed to have Watchdog perform any connection checking for TCP.  Watchdog will only do connection checking for UDP and IPX.  UDP and IPX are message oriented connections that need to be informed.  Being that TCP is not, eDirectory does not handle it.  We let Microsoft Windows TCP implementation handle the clearing of the connection and the timeout for a TCP connection is around 2 hours.

fix

The following  settings control how Windows manages connection keep alive transmissions, including the timeout before keepalives are sent and the interval between keepalive transmissions.

Open your registry (regedit) and find the key below:

System Key:  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
Value Name:   KeepAliveTime, KeepAliveInterval
Data Type:  REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Create new DWORD value named "KeepAliveTime" and set it to equal the number of milliseconds to wait before sending keep alive packets (the default is 2 hours - 7,200,000 milliseconds).  In the above scenario 2 hours is too long to clear the connection.  It is then recommended that you adjust it to a lower amount.  In the above case we adjusted it to 100,000 milliseconds (which is 100 seconds).

Also create a new DWORD value called "KeepAliveInterval" and set it to equal the time in milliseconds between retransmissions of keepalives, once the KeepAliveTime has expired (the default is 1 second - 1000 milliseconds).   In the above scenario we used this default setting (1000 milliseconds).

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

**NOTE:  The above parameters are global and WILL affect other applications using TCP.

**Disclaimer:  Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.  It is also recommended that you backup your registry before making any changes.

After rebooting, the Windows 2000 server will now clear connections that don't respond for 100 seconds.  Once Windows has cleared the connection, eDirectory no longer know about the connection as well.

note

A bug has been identified in ncpengine.dlm on Windows that may prevent these registry settings from working properly.  This issue was introduced in edir8737's ncpengine and is also present in edir8738.  Novell engineering is currently working on a fix.  Bugzilla bug #177021. 

As a workaround,  backrev ncpengine.dlm to a version prior to edir8737 and edir8738.

document

Document Title:	Error: "You are trying to log into too many stations simultaneously."
Document ID:	10079272
Solution ID:	NOVL86070
Creation Date:	23Jan2003
Modified Date:	18May2006
Novell Product Class:	NetWare Novell eDirectory

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