A method and apparatus to guarantee unique connection tags across resets in a connection protocol. In one embodiment, the methods include the update of a reset counter following a system reset. In one embodiment, once updated, a controller, such as, for example, an input/output (I/O) controller, may receive a response from a target device to an I/O request that was issued to the target device prior to system reset. In one embodiment, the I/O controller may determine a reset counter value associated with the received response. If the received response includes a reset counter value that does not match a local reset counter held by the I/O controller, the I/O controller may disregard the received response. Other embodiments are described and claimed.