Intermittent Connection Failures
We have been having the same issue as listed in Microsoft KB Article 904946 (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=904946).
It states:
"If the following conditions are true, you may experience intermittent communication failure between computers that are running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or that are running Microsoft Windows XP:
The network adapter is configured to use checksum offloading.
Windows Firewall is turned on."
However, we do NOT have the Windows Firewall turned on. But, the network adapter is configured for checksum offloading.
With everything I have researched, I believe setting this will fix our problem. Here is the dilemma though. My boss says that, since this implies it only affects machines with BOTH of these conditions (as opposed to just the one in our case), that this cannot be the problem. He wants information from Microsoft stating that it can also apply to our situation where the Windows Firewall is NOT on.
From all of the research for these settings, this should solve our problem along with other similar settings including those in the NIC's settings itself.
I just need confirmation from someone at Microsoft that the two conditions listed in Microsoft KB Article 904946 can be thought of as a separate "OR" or "AND/OR" set of conditions rather than only an "AND" set of conditions where both must be true.
Spencer
March 31st, 2010 11:45pm
We have been having the same issue as listed in Microsoft KB Article 904946 (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=904946).
It states:
"If the following conditions are true, you may experience intermittent communication failure between computers that are running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or that are running Microsoft Windows XP:
The network adapter is configured to use checksum offloading.
Windows Firewall is turned on."
However, we do NOT have the Windows Firewall turned on. But, the network adapter is configured for checksum offloading.
With everything I have researched, I believe setting this will fix our problem. Here is the dilemma though. My boss says that, since this implies it only affects machines with BOTH of these conditions (as opposed to just the one in our case), that this cannot be the problem. He wants information from Microsoft stating that it can also apply to our situation where the Windows Firewall is NOT on.
From all of the research for these settings, this should solve our problem along with other similar settings including those in the NIC's settings itself.
I just need confirmation from someone at Microsoft that the two conditions listed in Microsoft KB Article 904946 can be thought of as a separate "OR" or "AND/OR" set of conditions rather than only an "AND" set of conditions where both must be true.
Spencer
I wanted to also note that I know there are other Microsoft KB Articles ( such as KB 888750 ; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888750 ) that talk about DisableTaskOffload and other similar values, but those articles talk about pertaining to other products and/or situations. While that should be enough to convince my boss that we should set this, he will want something that explicitly states that this setting does apply in other situations and can solve problems such as those listed in KB 904946 even if not all of the conditions are true (in this case, being that the Windows Firewall is not also on).
You'd think that other articles apply to other situations and products would be good enough. But, no.
Spencer
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April 1st, 2010 6:13pm
Hi,
As far as I know, there are some settings may cause Intermittent Connection, it may vary depends on your environment. We have to try kinds of suggestion to find out which fix your problem.
I suggest you apply the suggestion in KB904946 on one of your client system. If it solve the problem, we can try apply the suggestion to all clients. Flexibility is important in troubleshooting.
Thanks.This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
April 2nd, 2010 10:26am
Hi,
As far as I know, there are some settings may cause Intermittent Connection, it may vary depends on your environment. We have to try kinds of suggestion to find out which fix your problem.
I suggest you apply the suggestion in KB904946 on one of your client system. If it solve the problem, we can try apply the suggestion to all clients. Flexibility is important in troubleshooting.
Thanks.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
We have tried this and other related settings. All offloading has been removed. While it removed checksum errors, the intermittent connection problems are still there.
Here is some additional information:
We have a problem on a few of our Terminal Servers (and sometimes our Domain Controller) that causes them to stop accepting new connections every so often—approximately every other day if not sooner. During this time, you can still ping the system in question but a reboot of the system is needed at that time to get everything working properly again.
Except for the Domain Controller, the servers in question are all Terminal Servers and the problem does not happen on any of the other member servers. The Domain Controller is also running DNS and Group Policy.
The servers in question are all running the 32-bit platform of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition With Service Pack 2. They all also have no more than 4GB of RAM in each of them.
We believed we have fixed any memory leaks on the systems in question. However, when this issue occurs, we will sometimes have 2019 errors (“The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the pool was empty.”; Source: SRV) in the system event log on the affected servers.
We have tried applying registry changes such as increasing the value for IRPStackSize, decreasing the value for PoolUsageMaximum, and setting PagedPoolSize with a value of 0xFFFFFFFF.
It seems neither what we try, the problem does not go away. Or, some of the fixes are not even supposed to apply to our situation based on the version of the operating system or other requirements.
Can anyone help?
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April 12th, 2010 7:36pm