When a VTAM® node fails, all TCP/IP stacks using that VTAM node to access the EZBEPORT structure lose access to the structure, and the VTAM node is disconnected from the EZBEPORT structure. When VTAM is restarted, the TCP/IP stacks that were using that VTAM node re-register as EZBEPORT users with this VTAM, and VTAM attempts to reconnect to the EZBEPORT structure. When the reconnect is complete, VTAM notifies the TCP/IP users, and the TCP/IP stacks repopulate the EZBEPORT structure with the list of ephemeral ports each TCP/IP stack has currently allocated.