Microsoft KB Archive/149846

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RPC Program Fails When Server Run Down Occurs

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Q149846

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows 95

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SYMPTOMS
When you run a multithreaded program that uses the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) API, or multiple RPC programs concurrently, one of the following error messages may occur:

- Invalid Handle

- RPC Failure

When these error messages occur, the connection to the RPC server is lost.

CAUSE
These errors may occur when all the following conditions exist:


 * The RPC server is a DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) server running a non-Microsoft operating system such as OS/2 or UNIX.
 * There are multiple RPC sockets (threads) being opened, either by a multithreaded RPC client program, or by multiple RPC client programs.
 * At least one of the RPC threads has been idle long enough for the RPC server to time out and automatically terminate (run down) the thread.

Under these conditions, the Windows 95 RPC run-time libraries do not properly shut down the RPC connection when the server times out and calls its rundown procedures. Subsequent attempts to create a new RPC connection or access an existing connection fail, generating one of the error messages listed above.

RESOLUTION
This issue is resolved by the following updated files for Windows 95 and OSR2, and later versions of these files:

  RPCLTC3.DLL  version 4.00.952  dated 4/23/96  8,624 bytes RPCRT4.DLL  version 4.00.952  dated 4/23/96  222,016 bytes

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95 and OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2). An update to address this problem is now available, but is not fully regression-tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft does not recommend implementing this update at this time. Contact Microsoft Technical Support for additional information about the availability of this update.

This issue is resolved in Microsoft Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION
Note that this symptom does not occur if Microsoft Windows NT is used as the RPC server, because Windows NT does not time out and call rundown procedures on the RPC connection as described above.

A similar update for this issue also exists for Windows NT RPC clients. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

"Q151714 NT RPC Client May Fail Against DCE Server"

For additional information about issues resolved by updates to this component, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q154496 ODBC Error After Multiple Connections and Disconnections

Q145652 Windows 95 RPC Ignores Shutdown Packets

For additional information about Windows 95 updates, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

"Q161020 Implementing Windows 95 Updates" Keywords : kbnetwork kbprogramming win95 kbAPI kbRPC kbSDKPlatform kbGrpDSNet

Issue type :

Technology : kbWin95search kbWin95