Ref: 13390008
Title: Troubleshooting NET804 and NET805 Errors
Date: 4/9/90

Copyright 3Com Corporation, 1991.  All rights reserved.

NET805 and NET804 errors are generated by the Microsoft Redirector
(MSREDIR).  The actual messages displayed are part of the Redirector.

A NET805 error occurs when MSREDIR tries to send or receive
data over a session that it detects as having been terminated without
having been properly unlinked first.  There are three common ways that
a session may have been terminated without having done a 3F or 3P unlink:

1.  An administrator can force a user to unlink.  The user will get
a NET805 error, followed by a NET804 error the next time he tries to
to any command that MSREDIR catches and sends across the network.  To
restore the links, the user must relink to specific drives or reboot
the workstation.

2.  If a NetBIOS send or receive from MSREDIR times out (default is
seven seconds), NetBIOS will generate a "Network retrying...press
Ctrl-Break" message.  Then NetBIOS continues to wait for the send or
receive to complete and retries the connection periodically.  However,
most people think they are supposed to press Ctrl-Break.  If they do
so, the session is broken by NetBIOS without notifying MSREDIR and
NET805 and NET804 errors appear.

Note:  If the user is using full NetBIOS with the /C parameter in his
AUTOEXEC.BAT file, the same scenario will occur, except that the system
automatically ends the network retry process without displaying the "Network
retrying..." message.  It will still generate NET804 and NET805 errors
onscreen.

3.  A network retry message may be generated when large numbers of files
are deleted from a directory.  In this case a single SMB (server message
block) is sent to the server and the server does not return any data until
it has finished deleting all the files that you asked it to.  If this
takes more than seven seconds then you will get the network retry message.
If you press Ctrl-Break then the session will be broken and you will get
NET805 and NET804 errors.

If you get "Network retrying..." for any other reason, it generally
means that either the server, the workstation, or the cabling is
defective.  If it only happens at one workstation, then it is likely
that something is wrong in the workstation--either in the PC itself or
the adapter card.

To troubleshoot the problem, isolate the location of the problem.  Then
try swapping the adapter.  If you still have the problem, try another PC
workstation or server (depending on where the adapter is to be installed).

To locate bad cable segments, use a Lanscanner or isolate segements one
at a time until you find the faulty cable.

