How to Increase the 10 Connection Limit on a Windows LAN
Let’s say you have a network of more than ten Windows computers connected in a local workgroup without a domain controller. One of the computers has a printer connected to it, and more than ten machines in the workgroup need to print at the same time.
Well, you might say, “Dude, get a server!” or “Dude, get a print server!”
True, that would solve the problem… But sometimes, things like money and technical knowledge are limiting factors in such cases.
The good news: It’s actually really easy to increase the limit and get everybody printing/sharing files in a very short time!
Alrighty, first a few more words about Windows Networking. If a computer is running Windows XP Home, the max number of connections that can be made to/from that computer on the LAN is 5. If the machine is running XP Pro, Vista, etc. then the max is 10.
Also, you have to understand that the limit refers to connections, not number of computers. Technically, you can have a LAN with 500 Windows machines, and as long as no more than 10 computers are trying to connect to any other computer, everything will work okay. But you will still probably have a few headaches like when you browse Network Neighborhood, not all the computers will show up. That’s pretty annoying.
So now, here’s how you fix it:
First, type Win-R to open the “Run” dialog box, and type gpedit.msc.
At this point, one of two things will happen:
- You have a fancier version of Windows, so a nice management console will pop up.
- You have a less fancy version of Windows, so it will give you an error message.
If you see the management window, then navigate thisaway:
Computer Config -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Option
And set Interactive Logon to 50 (the maximum) or 0 (i.e. disable caching completely)
If you get the error message instead of the management window, then do the following:
- Type
Win-R - Type
regedt32and hit Enter - Search for the following entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CachedLogonsCount - Change
CachedLogonsCountto50(the max) or0(disabled) - Close the Registry Editor
Repeat on each machine on the network just for good measure, et voila! You’re done.
I’ve used this trick before on multi-version Windows networks, and it works like a charm. It’s also a heckuva lot easier than setting up a server, and cheaper than buying a standalone print server of some kind.
Finally, note that for Windows versions without gpedit.msc, you can download an Excel file with the corresponding registry entries to edit in Vista (entries are usually the same in other versions of Windows).
Have fun!
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Brilliant – have just the symptoms as you laid out. Not sure if this is in breach of Microsoft Licence.
tried to do it on VISTA 32. Not working
The registry key is set to 20, but the pc give me a limit of 10 pc connected…
any ideas??
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. In other words, don’t do this.
Workgroups are insecure by nature, and if you have to enforce any kind of security in a workgroup then you are in a world of high-maintenance hurt. You have to keep passowrds and user groups and all that in sync, or else you have to have people sharing passwords.
Also, at least at one point (and I think it is still the case), there isn’t just a technical limit imposed. Without a domain controller you are violating the license agreement of WinXP Pro, Vista and 7 if you make these OSes do more than 10 connections at a time.
Of course, if you don’t care about security then there are chances you don’t care about breaking the law either and you are using cracked software
If you are too broke to buy a computer with Windows server on it then use some old junk PC with Linux on it running Samba and you can save a few hundred bucks. Don’t give me crap about Linux being hard either–I’ve set up Windows AND samba domains and samba ain’t any harder these days with OSes like Ubuntu and Mandriva (I’ve done it on both of those OSes without opening a command promt at all). Since it is pretty common practice to do this and there isn’t any language in MSFT EULA’s that says you have to use THEIR server oses to do domains, then I think this option is far more solid. Might not have full group policy capabilities w/ samba, but at least you can manage security better.
Vey useful dude……..
thanks very much…how long i am facing this problem.
once again thanks.
hey all
really useful tut but its not working with me
i just went to know if its necessary to config all the pc’s on the lan or just the admin pc ?
another thing :p
if som1 knows how or a program to distribute a file over all the lan computers
thx
I made the change to all the puters on the LAN, and that fixed the problem of not having all the computers show up in Network Neighborhood.
Dunno about your second question though!
what about Win 2000 server….
Not sure about Win2k server. Don’t know much about it, although I think the server versions are far more restrictive since they want you to pay lots more money for a server that can handle more connections. I could be wrong, though!
Hey, thanks a bunch. I couldn’t find a solution anywhere online for this issue after many pages of google results. This was a quick, easy fix. I only wanted to allow all the users on our network to access a 2TB harddrive on our ‘server’ computer and was able to do so by only editing the ‘server’s settings.
Anyway, thanks for saving me $1000!
HI, why I can’t see the comments ?
Btw, I tried this method in my XP server, then I found that in “Computer management”, I can adjust the max users to 20 of the shared resources, however, after 10 computers connect to the server, the 11 will still cannot access the shared folder. It seems no hope. I also install the “Event4226 Patch”, any idea ?
I haven’t set all the workstations to this method, since some computers haven’t gpedit.msc, I can’t download from yr site. please help, thanks !!
Hmm. I can’t seem to find that XLS file any more. You could just try searching the registry for “CachedLogonsCount”. I’m not sure if that’s correct, because I don’t have a Vista machine anymore to try it out.
Very useful tip…I used this when the each client can’t print to the shared printer in one of the workstation here at the office.