Too Many Connected Users Err. Msg. When Use SSL and IE 3.0 (160582)

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. IIS 6.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx

SYMPTOMS

When you open a link on a secured Internet Information Server (IIS) website, you will get the following error message:

Too many connected users.

CAUSE

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.01 does not close Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections to an HTTPS web server correctly. Therefore, it causes open connections to stay until the server times out the connections.

Netscape Navigator version 3.x does not cause the above error.

WORKAROUND

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

Turn off keep-alives on Internet Information Server by using regedit (or regedt32) and the following entry:

NOTE: The following entry turns off keep-alives to on SSL connections. However, it breaks Windows NT Challenge/Response authentication.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ 
           \System
            \CurrentControlSet
             \Services
              \W3SVC
               \Parameters
                \SslNoKeepAlive:

REG_DWORD: 1

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.01. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.