win nt workstation 10-user limit????

[paras]

Have an NT 4 machine with a cd drive that is shared. Win95/98 clients throughout LAN log in at startup, and connect to this network drive. There are about 20 such clients in the LAN, but actual use of the CD is slight. (Maybe 1-2 times a day that client software actually accesses the CD on the NT4 Workstation). Having problems where at certain times, some clients can't start up and connect to the Workstation (get "Can't connect to (path)" message).


I need to troubleshoot this problem. I'm aware of the "10 user limit" when NT4 Workstation is used in this manner. My understanding is maximum 10 people can "use" simultaneously. When the problem occurs, I can verify that 10 people are not using the Workstation's cd (no where near it). Perhaps I am not understanding how this "limit" really works? Maybe previous users aren't being detected as being idle? How can I make this setup work reliably? The usage of this shared CD is so minimal that they don't want the expense of NT Server and lots of client licenses.
:rolleyes:

[buddy12]

At the point these users get an error msg, do they still have network connectivity to the workstation? Can you ping and connect to other parts of the workstation from the user's end, are they only having issues connecting to the network share (cd)?

[paras]

everything is fine. i think this has just got to do with the 10-user license....or better put, the limit that only 10 connections are entertained in NT workstation.

On the Win98 clients, I can change Network/Client for Microsoft Networks/Properties to "Quick Logon". I think this prevents the clients from connecting to the shared CD drive at logon (and tying up a "license") until they actually need to use it.

Unfortunately, my users are numerous and not well-educated. I can't educate them about "disconnecting" from a network drive - which was my other work-around solution to the requirement.

My hope is that NT Workstation will "disconnect" them after a certain amount of "idle time" has passed. (I remember reading something about this, and some sort of Registry setting in NT that controls "how long" the connection is kept active.) Am I wrong about this? Do you have any info on this?

In my situation, users of each client will use the shared drive only 1-2 times per day. The "20 clients" should be able to all share the NT drive, since very few of them would be using it at any one time.

any ideas?