Ref: 17310015
Title: Changes in 3+ 1.6 That May Solve "Sleeping Server" Problems
date:  8/10/90

Copyright 3Com Corporation, 1991.  All rights reserved.

One common symptom of a 3+Share server that has gone to sleep is that
users who are already linked to it continue to operate, whereas users
attempting to link receive the message "Share server not responding."
This message will be displayed when new links are requested.  If the
server is a name server, then "Name server not responding" will be
displayed when login is attempted.

In 3+ 1.6, several enhancements were implemented to solve many of these
types of problems in a moderately large or busy network.  (If you do not
have 3+ 1.6, you can obtain updated device drivers for IDP.SYS, SPP.SYS,
ETH386.SYS, and ETH3.SYS from the Ask3Com Forum, Patches and Fixes
library, in the archived file DRIVRS.ZIP.)  Following are descriptions of
the actual enhancements.


1.  IDP.SYS

IDP.SYS is a device driver to be used on all 3+ servers and netstations.

IDP.SYS was modified to accept a large number of available XNS routes.
Originally IDP used a static table containing 32 Route entries.  The
table is now dynamic and will contain only valid routes.

Symptoms for 3+Share servers using previous versions of IDP.SYS:

  *  Netstations attempting links display "Share server not responding."
  *  Status.log displays "MindsIDP command 7 returned error 5":  No
     Route.
  *  Heavy RIP traffic seen on the network as Route table size is
     exceeded by available Routes.


2.  SPP.SYS

SPP.SYS is a device driver to be used on all 3+ servers and netstations.

SPP.SYS was updated to correct a problem with the listener buffer that
became deaf under heavy user login activity.  A physical packet transmission
problem caused the buffer to be allocated.  When there is a transmit failure
during a login request, the 3+Share server's listener buffer will be made
available for a new session open request.

Symptom for 3+ servers using previous versions of SPP.SYS:

  *  Netstations attempting links display "Share server not responding."


3.  ETH386.SYS and ETH3.SYS

ETH386.SYS is used by 3S/4XX and 3S/5XX servers.  ETH3.SYS is used for
3S/2XX servers and 3Servers.

ETH386.SYS and ETH3.SYS were modified to allow the Ethernet coprocessor to
handle relatively heavy broadcast traffic without exceeding the available
packet buffer space.  This prevents the process from halting service.  Under
heavy traffic, receive buffers will be available to receive packets.

Symptoms for 3+ servers with previous ETH386 and ETH3 versions installed:

  *  Netstations attempting links display "Share server not responding."
  *  Netstations display "Network Retrying," and NET804 or NET805 errors
     indicating that 3+Share links have been lost.

If a 3Com dedicated server LCD displays a frozen time value, this usually
indicates that there is a cabling, transmission, or hardware failure and
users will receive the message "Network Retrying" or "Share server not
responding."  In this case, the 3+Share software has not gone to sleep.
3+Share sleeping server symptoms are displayed intermittently in relatively
busy networks.
