Just as a follow-up to that last reply: that wasn't really it I don't think... there is no DNS server betwixt these 3 in their dedicated mirroring LAN, and why...

http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=750954&isthread=false&siteid=1

I had been trying to use IP addresses.  Looks like that works okay for everything but as far as the Witness was concerned.  Fixing the HOSTS file up on...

But now I get this issue with the witness... http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=389402&SiteID=1

Stewart, I got the same message on my mirror instance when trying to set up the partner at the principal-- "Database Mirroring login attempt failed with error: 'Connection handshake failed....