Dual paths to the same nodes are detected by the Standard Ethernet Data Link Control (DLCETHER) device manager in one of two ways. First, if a call is in progress to a remote node that is also trying to call the local node, the incoming find (remote name) request is treated as if a local listen were outstanding. Second, if a pending local listen has been acquired by a remote node call and the local user issues a call to that remote node after the link session is already active, a result code (DLC_REMOTE_CONN) is returned to the user along with the link station correlator of the attachment already active. This allows the user to relink attachment pointers.