I will Post a word doc when I finish my limited research on DDE.
Subject: NetDDE/Win2000
There could be many things going on here to prevent NetDDE
communications and it's impossible to cover them all in this venue.
For the configuration you've described there is no need to configure
a domain and/or winsserver. I'll start with the basics to begin, do
the following on all PCs:
1. Ping each of the other respecitve nodes via its name and IP
Address and make sure you get 'Reply' messages to each ping. If
no 'Reply' messages are recieved then this would need to be addressed
on your network so that you do get 'Reply' messsages.
2. Make sure, if possible, that only TCP/IP is the configured
protocol. If any other protocols are configured then remove them for
now, they can be readded later on if necessary.
3. Make sure the Network DDE, Network DDE DSDM and ClipBook Server
services are set for 'Automatic' and have a status of 'started', this
can be verified under Control Panel/Services. If any of these
services are not 'started' then start them.
4. Make sure your PC names are not embedded with any spaces or longer
than 15 characters in length, NetDDE has problems when encountering
either of these anomolies.
5. Compare the PCs that are able to get a NetDDE connection to those
that don't and make sure the ones that aren't connecting are
configured exactly the same as those that do connect.
6. NT Service Pack 4 broke NetDDE, MicroSoft made 'hotfixes'
available for Service Packs 4 and 5 to install to fix NetDDE. If
possible, make sure any/all NT PC's have SP6a (incorporated NetDDE
fix) installed or the respective NetDDE 'hotfix' for SP4 or SP5.
7. Make sure DDEShares (*|*) are defined on ALL PC's, 2000 or NT.
I recently found that Win2000 defaults to 16 active NetDDE
conversations. The limit is 254. The Microsoft Tech Web has
information on how to change it. It involves going into the registry.
Once this is fixed, most NetDDE problems seem to go away.
NETDDE.EXE fom MS Patches
For the Win2000 platform make sure SP2 is installed as there has been
known problems with establishing NetDDE communications on Win2000
platforms (Reference MS
Article Q272485).
Using the Windows NT NetDDE Share Manager (Q114089)
;EN-US;q114089
MSFT DDE Search
3d1033%26CDID%3dEN-US-KB%26PRODLISTSRC%
3dON&Product=win2000&Query=netdde&Queryc=netdde&withinResults=false&sr
chstep=0&KeywordType=ALL&Titles=false&numDays=&maxResults=25
These are not recommendations just links do your research before
installing patches or what ever....
Kent
