I know this is an old thread, but it's a problem with Vista that many users will encounter if they have certain needs for their PC. Also, Spooky- you're absolutely incorrect in your assessment with the status of Windows TCPIP stacks as this is absolutely a flaw and problem with TCPIP on the Windows platform. This breaks compatibility as there is no such "limit" imposed on how many half-open connections a platform may have, and the behavior in this condition (and it's assumptions) is also highly flawed (i.e. denial of service imposed on the user). Windows XP (like all other operating systems) had no limits. This is normal behavior. It was decided by Microsoft that to protect the less than technically savvy PC users that a limit should be imposed to try and reduce the spread of malware/trojans and viruses. Unfortunately Malware, Trojans and Viruses are only one type of network application that encounters this scenario. There are a multitude of client->server or peer to peer uses that can trigger this artificially imposed limit. In effect, they have thrown the baby out with the bath water. This was performed on Windows XP (around SP2 whereabouts) and now carries over to Vista. At least in XP, several patches and changes can be applied to help work-around this inflicted issue. P2P and other more complex applications that require fast access to a number of remote hosts will hit this limit. When this limit is reached, NO new connections can be established. This is a denial of service imposed and assumes a particular situation is occurring. When using P2P or connecting to multiple remote sites, this limit can easily be reached and thus locks the PC from further network usage. It's debatable whether or not, in the context of "average" users and Windows world, how effective or overall good such a measure may be. It's absolutely NOT debatable if this is an issue or non-standard behavior for networking performance/implementation. Hands-down, this breaks and limits the capabilities of Windows PC's and imposes severe limits that should be user-configurable. There are some patches available, such as this document with links: (from previous poster) http://www.securevista.net/2007/04/vista-t...imit-patch.html and a more in-depth article + instructions: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/04/09/w...-event-id-4226/ Microsoft should most definitely address this problem as 2-25 half-open connection limit and it's imposed behavior when this limit is reached is highly flawed.
