Cannot Connect to Print Share on Server with Many File and Print Shares

ID: Q233313

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to connect to a Microsoft Windows NT print share that does not appear in the browse list, the connection is not successful and you receive the following error message:

Access to the specified device, path, or file is denied


CAUSE

Windows 95/98 clients attempt to determine whether a share exists from the browse list that is received from the Windows NT server. If the Windows NT server has a large number of shares with long comments, the client may not be able to hold the list even in the largest buffer that it can set aside for this task. The maximum buffer size that a Windows 95/98 client can use for this task is 64 KB.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q160807 Cannot Connect to Windows NT Server with Many Shares
NOTE: The hotfix referenced in Q160807 works only for a file share. A print share is handled in a different manner.


RESOLUTION

As the comment size per share and the number of shares on the Windows NT server increases, the size of the browse list sent to Windows 95/98 clients increases. Use the following formula to calculate the maximum number of shares and comment sizes:

20+(comment size+1)*number of shares<=65535
Example:

With a maximum comment length of 48 bytes per share, the maximum number of shares is roughly 949. This includes the server's hidden shares.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: 


Keywords          : kberrmsg kbprint osr2 win95 win98 win98se 
Version           : WINDOWS:95
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: June 23, 1999