Error message "No more connections can be made to this computer at thi

[Kimosabi2]

Background: Small business, about 15 users sharing a mapped drive file on a Windows workgroup network. Most use Win XP. They are receiving a message "No more connections can be made to this remote computer at this time because there are already as many connections as the computer can accept." Anyone know what this file share limit is on a workgroup network? Can I do anything to increase this limit other than install a server and create a domain?

thanks

Bob...

 

[shatch]

What OS have you got installed on your server. If its not a server OS then you will have a limit of 10 concurrent connections.

If you are running a server OS then check the licencing section to see how many licences you have, if you are reaching the max then requests will be denied.

 

[pweegar]

Not only will you not be able to gain access beyond the license issue, you may also get some really strange error mesages (I.e. COM/COM+ failed....). We get this type of message when we've reached our max. number of connections.

 

[Kimosabi2]

Thanks for your replies. I have only a Windows Workgroup network and as you pointed out it is limited to only 10 concurrent users of a share. If there is no know way to increase the user count I guess I'll just have to install a server.

Thanks for the help

Bob...

 

[shatch]

I am afraid there is no way of increasing the 10 user limit on a non server based OS, sorry.

 

[gpalmer711]

Take a look at

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=3&threadID=147136&messageID=1592748

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[bcastner]

Greg,

Quoting from your link:

"Connection Limits
XP Pro allows 10 connections. This limit is installed by default in the metabase key MaxConnections for W3SVC, and there is no user interface method for modifying the setting. You can change this setting to any number less than 40 and it works, but that is not widely advertised. (set it to 39)"

The W3SVC is a IIs service. What you are modifying is the number of simultaneous connectons a single remote client can have to your Web server, not XP and file shares.

 

[gpalmer711]

Doh!!!

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[Kimosabi2]

Thanks to shatch, pweegar, gpalmer711 and of course bcastner for all your help. Limits are limits. Now its time to look for an inexpensive server for about 50 users max to solve this problem. Any suggestions besides $Dell?

Bob...

 

[bcastner]

Dell, HP and IBM are kind of the kings of this product space.

One thing to consider for 50 users is to purchase the Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 rather than Server 2003.

It is an incredible deal.

 

[pweegar]

Also check on-line for servers. The hardware isn't all that expensive, but Windows OS and enough licenses can get a bit pricey. Sites that comes to mind are dartek.com, directpc.ca and newegg.com.

 

[Kimosabi2]

Thanks pweegar. I'll check those sites out. The client is going to wait for a while to consider a server solution but I think it is going to happen expensive or not. You have to stay in business whether you understand the economics of IT or not.

Bob...

 

[Rick998]

Just a suggestion but does a server need to be Windows-based...

We use several SME servers at work. It's free, downloadable, based on Linux and is a doddle to set up for file sharing via Samba (and web-serving). Runs absolutely great on a PII 550 with 128Mb RAM.

Have a look at

http://contribs.org/modules/news/

Hope this helps...

Rick

 

[Kimosabi2]

Excellent idea Rick. I'll download SME version 5.6 from

http://www.e-smith.org

and give it a try. I am testing SUSE Linux version 9.0 now so this will fit right in. Is Samba part of SME? Thanks for your suggestion. I'll post my results of the SME test here.

Bob...

 

[Rick998]

Bob,

Note the info on

http://www.e-smith.org

that all development and info has moved to contribs.org.

The latest community release is SME server 6.01. You'll find a link to the download at

http://contribs.org/modules/phpwiki/index.php/Downloads.

Yes, Samba is integral to SME.

Hope this helps...

Rick

 

[Rick998]

I should also add that although SME server is very easy to administer for file sharing, etc. using the web-based Control Panel, there are limitations on customising it.

If you want something that's free, quick, easy to install and administer, secure and reliable then try SME. If you want to be able to tinker under the bonnet or want eye candy and no end of unnecessary software and services then another Linux distro (like SuSe) may be best.

Having played with all manner of Linux distros and experienced the pain of trying to get Samba working quickly and easily, I've reverted to using SME server for file sharing. Basically, I don't care how it does it, just that it works <grin>.

 

[Kimosabi2]

I have downloaded the SME Server 6.01 ISO file. I will burn it to a CD and start playing. Maybe we should move this conversation to another more appropriate thread? Any suggestions?

Bob...

 

[Rick998]

Kimosabi2,

There's a 'Mitel Networks Solutions' forum here. It's a new forum and first posts appear to deal with Mitel's business solutions rather than their un-supported version, now being developed by contribs.org. How about a new thread there as it's not exactly XP-related?

Rick

 

[Kimosabi2]

Rick
I installed SME 6.0.1 and got it working on my home XP/W2K Workgoup network. It is great. I created an "i-bay" directory and am sharing files all over the place. Thanks very much for the tip, I'm sure it will work out well for my client too. I think I would rather use the

http://contribs.org/

Forums to continue my thread on this SME server project. See you there!
Thanks again.

Bob...

 

[Rick998]

Kimosabi2,

Good to hear file sharing is going well using SME 6.0.1. I agree that the contribs.org forums are more appropriate. May see you there...

Also glad to hear there's someone else as sad as to have a home network <big grin>.

Rick