Microsoft KB Archive/171086

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Error Message: Unable to Connect to '' Hostname...

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Q171086

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.0, 3.01 for Windows 3.1

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SYMPTOMS
When you are using Internet Explorer with Novell's Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack, Internet Explorer may be unable to connect to Web sites. When this occurs, you may receive the following error message:

Unable to connect to '' Hostname unknown.

CAUSE
Internet Explorer is a Winsock-based program. It makes a function call to open TCP/IP sockets to establish a TCP/IP connection. The default settings for the Novell TCP/IP stack restrict the number of TCP/IP sockets to 32 (which is the maximum number of sockets that the Novell Winsock.dll supports). If this value is reduced to conserve the amount of conventional memory used by Novell's TCP/IP, Internet Explorer may be unable to open the necessary TCP/IP sockets to connect to a Web site.

Internet Explorer communicates with Winsock.dll to determine the number of sockets in use and the number of sockets that are available. Because Novell's Winsock.dll supports 32 sockets, Internet Explorer attempts to use up to 32 sockets to establish TCP/IP connections. The number of TCP/IP sockets is restricted at the TCP/IP level, not the Winsock level, so Internet Explorer tries to, but cannot open, a number of sockets greater than the value set in the Net.cfg configuration file.

MORE INFORMATION
For information about modifying the TCP/IP settings for the Novell TCP/IP stack, refer to the Novell TCP/IP Readme.txt file and the Net.cfg file.

Additional query words: 3.00 3.01 3.x

Keywords : kbenv kberrmsg kbnetwork msiew31

Issue type :

Technology : kbIEsearch kbZNotKeyword2 kbIE310Search kbZNotKeyword3 kbIE300Win310 kbIE301Win310