Peer-to-Peer Questions #6: Remote Access Service, Persistent Connections, Windows NT/9.x - Event IDs and Fatal Errors

  • Article

June 21, 1999

Editors Note This article, culled from the TechNet Web site (https://www.microsoft.com/technet), answers the most interesting questions received on the peer -to-peer discussion groups over the past few weeks. To post your own questions, visit the TechNet discussion groups at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/default.mspx.

Greetings, and welcome! For those of you checking in for the first time, my name is Devon and I'm here to provide detailed answers to popular questions submitted to TechNet via the answer forums and feedback alias. I choose questions that I believe are relevant to many of us working in the trenches to plan, deploy, maintain and support Microsoft products.

On This Page

Remote Access Service
Persistent Connections
Windows NT Event IDs and Windows 9.x Fatal Errors

Remote Access Service

Numerous questions have been posted regarding problems with RAS. The most common issues mentioned are:

  • Clients not being authenticated in the Windows NT domain when dialing in via RAS

  • Callback not working

  • Problems with autodial

  • Dropped connections

  • Clients dialing in to RAS server OK, but not able to browse the domain

  • Modem problems

  • Security

What follows is a list of useful troubleshooting papers, Knowledge Base articles, FAQs and planning papers. If you are having a particular problem with RAS, check out the sections below: RAS Server, RAS Client and Modem.

RAS Server

  • MS Routing and Remote Access Service for Windows NT Server Administrator's Guide, Chapter 6 – Troubleshooting

  • Solving Problems with Dial-Up Networking (DUN) and Remote Access Service (RAS) located on the Web at https://support.microsoft.com/support/tshoot/nt4_ras.asp is an online troubleshooter that queries the user and offers possible resolutions.

  • Having problems pinging or connecting to computers across a router using the TCP/IP protocol while connected as a RAS client to a remote Windows NT 3.5x and 4.0 RAS server? Check out this Knowledge Base article, **Q128647:**Troubleshooting TCP/IP LAN and RAS Routing Issues.

  • Another Knowledge Base article you should read is **Q163111:**The Remote Access Service (RAS) Error Code List.

Client

  • Q171015: How to Install and Configure Windows NT 4.0 Dial-Up Networking describes procedures to diagnose and fix problems when you are unable to dial out using your modem in Windows NT 4.0 with Dial-Up Networking (DUN).

  • Q162293: Troubleshooting RAS Client Issues in Windows NT 4.0 provides steps to help you troubleshoot issues with the Remote Access Service (RAS) in Windows NT 4.0. It addresses issues that can occur when you use RAS to dial into another computer or an Internet service provider (ISP).

Modem

  • Q161516: Troubleshooting Modem Problems Under Windows NT 4.0.

  • Interrogating modem commands sent from the RAS client or server can be a useful troubleshooting tool for diagnosing communications problems. **Q162694:**How to Capture Modem Commands in Windows NT 4.0, discusses how you can use the Device.log in Windows NT 4.0 to troubleshoot problems with Switch.inf and script files.

  • Q102782: Troubleshooting RAS Problems and Using the DEVICE.LOG File provides information on capturing Windows NT 3.5x modem commands.

  • Windows NT Remote Access Server attempts to reset its serial ports when it detects that the phone line has been hung up. The server detects a disconnect when either Data Carrier Detect (DCD) or Data Set Ready (DSR) signals are dropped by the server's modem. Is this your concern? If so, read **Q101878:**Windows NT RAS Server Port Reset.

  • Q151996: How to Improve Data Transfers over RAS, RRAS, or Slow Links.

Setting up and Configuring RAS

Deployment

Persistent Connections

Configuring network logon and persistent connections for Client for Microsoft Networks seems to be causing many of you pain. Fortunately, there are some great resources available, such as Windows 98 on Microsoft Networks, Chapter 16. Here's a sample:

To configure how persistent connections are restored:

  1. In Control Panel, double-click Network, and then double-click Client for Microsoft Networks in the list of network components.

  2. To map the drive letters when you log on, without actually establishing a session for each persistent network connection, click Quick logon in the Network logon options area.

    – Or –

    To have Windows 98 verify each persistent network connection at startup by establishing a session for each persistent connection, click Logon and restore network connections.

With Quick logon, Windows 98 initializes data structures for mapping local drives and local printer ports to network resources, but Windows 98 does not attach to the network resource until the user tries to get access to the resources.

When you use Quick logon (the default), Windows 98 starts faster than when the actual connections are made during startup. However, the first time you try to access a network drive, it will take a little longer for the contents of that drive to appear.

Note: Quick logon requires password caching to function properly. If system policies are used to disable password caching, users cannot use Quick logon successfully with peer servers configured with share-level security.

Persistent Connection information is stored in the Registry in the following keys:

Win9x:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Network, Persistent

WinNT:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \WindowsNT \CurrentVersion \Network \Persistent Connections

Windows NT Event IDs and Windows 9.x Fatal Errors

I've been seeing a number of questions relate to receiving Windows NT Event IDs and Windows 9.x Exception Errors/General Protection Faults (GPFs). Understanding what these error messages mean will give you some idea about what to do next to fix the problem.

The complexity and cryptic nature of error messages has long been the bane of not only IT support Pros, but end users as well. The problem of cryptic, non-useful error messages is one of the issues that the product groups within Microsoft are working very hard on eliminating. On many occasions, Bill Gates has referenced this problem. For instance at Synergy '99, he said:

"Simplicity is a big, big goal for us, because as we get these machines to be more powerful, we can actually reduce the number of commands, certainly we can dramatically reduce the number of error messages that people see, and the cryptic nature of those things."

The following resources are good references that IT Pros supporting their users should keep handy.

Windows NT

  • Q155011: Error Codes in Windows NT Part 1 of 2

  • Q155012: Error Codes in Windows NT Part 2 of 2

Included in the Windows NT 4.0 Resource kit is a database of NT Event IDs and corresponding messages as they are displayed in Event Viewer. I find this very useful to keep handy.

Windows 9.x

  • Q150314: What Are Windows 95/98 Fatal Exception Errors

  • Q82710: Causes of General Protection Faults

  • The Windows 95 Resource Kit available on the TechNet CD also includes troubleshooting material.

Here are some quick tips for troubleshooting fatal exceptions in Win9x:

A great way to obtain additional information is to query the Knowledge Base using the specific filename that appears to be causing the problem. Another tactic for querying the Knowledge Base is to query on the error number or the exact text of the error message that you receive. If querying using the exact text does not return results, start reducing the amount of text you use to query.

And speaking of the Knowledge Base, the latest Technical Answers includes some helpful search tips regarding use of keywords.

Please check back and read my next column on July 5th. Until then, here's wishing you stress-free computing.

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