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ERROR_NETWORK_BUSY
This code is deliberately broader than a connection refusal or an access denial. Network redirectors can queue, retry, and translate failures from a remote server; Windows documentation notes that redirectors may retry requests before returning an error to the application. A transient busy condition therefore needs timing and workload evidence.
A useful investigation compares the same operation under low load and during the failure window. If the error appears only while many connections or requests are outstanding, inspect client redirector pressure and server request/session limits. If the same request fails immediately in isolation, a stable path, protocol, or policy error is more likely than true congestion.
Collect before retrying blindly
- Timestamp the first failure and the first successful retry.
- Record concurrent connections, outstanding jobs, and whether unrelated shares on the same server also stall.
- Preserve the original API and error code; later retries can hide the first failure.
- Use bounded retry with backoff only when the operation is safe to repeat.
Windows network redirector architecture · MS-SMB2 network disconnect handling · Samba smbclient manual
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