Our Amazon Web Servers may report the following error when trying to connect to SQL Server:
A transport-level error has occurred when receiving results from the server. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 - The semaphore timeout period has expired.)
NIC Changes
Modify "Citirix PV Ethernet Adapter #0" via Properties / Configure Advanced
Set values to:
IPv4 checksum offload - disable ( from: enabled transmit and received )
large receive offload - disable ( from: enabled )
large send offlaod - disable ( from: enabled )
tcp checksum offload - disable ( from: enabled transmit and received )
NOTE:Only modify adapter #0, and not the other
https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?messageID=477159
Ghosted NIC(s)
There can also be an issue with ghosted NICs but we've moved away from cloning machines with multiple NICs. To fix:
Run a CMD prompt as admin and run
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
devmgmt.msc
Then in device manager, choose "how hidden devices", you'll see the ghost NICs
Delete them and reboot.
The cause of the problem and a hotfix from MS is listed below: