Cannot See List of All Shares on Windows NT Server (202892)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 98
  • Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.1
  • Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.5
This article was previously published under Q202892

SYMPTOMS

When you are using a computer running Windows 95 or Windows 98 and you attempt to browse the list of shares on a Microsoft Windows NT server, you may be unable to see a complete list of the shares on the Windows NT server.

CAUSE

This problem can occur if any of the following conditions exist:
  • The comments assigned to the shares on the Windows NT server are too long.
  • There are too many shares on the Windows NT server.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue:
  1. Make sure that the comments for each share do not exceed 48 characters in length.
  2. Reduce the number of shares, or the length of the comments to allow more shares to be listed.

MORE INFORMATION

There are two factors that impose a limit on the number of Windows NT shares that Windows 95 and Windows 98 can display:
  • Windows 95 and Windows 98 calculate the size of the buffer needed to list all of the share information based on the assumption that the Comments field is a maximum of 48 characters in length.

    If the Comments fields for the shares on the Windows NT server exceed this limit, the buffer that Windows allocates to receive the list of share information from the server are not large enough to contain all of the information. The result is that some shares do not appear in the list.

    Microsoft Windows NT allows a maximum of 256 characters of text in the Comments field.
  • The network Application Programming Interface (API) that Windows 95 and Windows 98 use to get the list of shares from the Windows NT server is limited to receiving a maximum of 64 KB (65,536 bytes) of data. If the data for all of the shares on the Windows NT server cannot fit within a 64-KB buffer, not all of the shares appear on the list.

    The formula used to compute the maximum number of Windows NT shares that Windows 95 and Windows 98 can display is:

    65,536 / (CommentLength + 21) = MaxNumberOfShares

    For example, using the maximum values for the length of the Share name and Comments field, this formula evaluates as:

    65,536 / (48 + 21) = 949.797 = 949 shares

    In another example, reducing the length of the Comments fields to twenty (20) characters each, the result is:

    65,536 / (20 + 21) = 1598.439 = 1598 shares

These limitations exist because the API that Windows 95 and Windows 98 use to enumerate shares is implemented as a LAN Manager 2.1 API, which imposes these limits. These limitations do not apply to Windows NT network clients.

REFERENCES

For additional information about problems with connecting to Windows NT servers with large numbers of shares, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

188206 "Access Denied" Connecting to Windows NT Server with Many Shares

160808 Profiles and Briefcase May Not Work with Windows NT Server

160807 Cannot Connect to Windows NT Server with Many Shares

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:12/16/2004
Keywords:kbnetwork kbprb KB202892
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.