ServerXMLHTTP Stops Responding When You Send a POST Request (305053)
The information in this article applies to:
This article was previously published under Q305053 SYMPTOMS
When you send a POST request by using ServerXMLHTTP, and the response from an HTTP/1.1 server does not contain a Connection header, and the HTTP/1.1 server keeps the connection alive after it delivers a response to an HTTP request, ServerXMLHTTP may stop responding (hang) until the timeout expires, and you may receive the following error message:
msxml3.dll error '80004005'
Unspecified error
CAUSE
WinHTTP attempts to read more data than will actually be delivered in the socket connection.
RESOLUTIONA supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.
The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:
Date Time Version Size File name
-------------------------------------------------------
27-Jun-20001 12:38 8.10.8627 1,106,944 msxml3.dll
27-Jun-20001 12:36 8.10.8627 24,576 msxml3a.dll
27-Jun-20001 12:36 8.10.8627 44,032 msxml3r.dll
27-Jun-20001 12:36 6.0.2462.0 28,672 xmlinst.exe
STATUSMicrosoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. MORE INFORMATION
The HTTP stack that MSXML3 ServerXMLHTTP uses, WinHTTP, is an HTTP/1.0-compliant stack with support for persistent connections. ServerXMLHTTP uses a COM Automation component called WinHttpRequest that is based on the core WinHTTP Win32 application programming interface (API).
Section 19.6.2 ("Compatibility with HTTP/1.0 Persistent Connections") of the HTTP/1.1 specification (RFC 2616) contains the following text:
Persistent connections in HTTP/1.0 are explicitly negotiated as they are not the default behavior.
When an HTTP/1.1 server interoperates with a 1.0 client, the server response to a request should specify whether the connection is closed or persisted after the response is delivered.
WinHTTP supports persistent connections, but assumes that the server will close the connection if the server response does not include a Connection header. This is the opposite behavior of an HTTP/1.1 client, which assumes that the connection is persisted unless explicitly informed otherwise with a Connection: Close response header.
Furthermore, the WinHttpRequest component ignores any Content-Length header in the response. It does this because occasionally the value that is given in the Content-Length header is incorrect, so WinHttpRequest continues to read response data from the TCP socket connection until it encounters the end of the response stream. However, if the connection is persisted, the Content-Length value must be honored so that no attempt is made to read past the end of the response data. Because the connection is persisted, ServerXMLHTTP stops responding if WinHTTP attempts to read more data than will actually be delivered in the socket connection.
| Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 10/19/2005 |
|---|
| Keywords: | kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbfix kbprb kbQFE KB305053 |
|---|
|