When you add the instance via the setup program, it will be the same SP as the existing instance.

Reboot should not be required.

Even if you do mixed mode, it isa good idea to eventually disable sa.

So after the fact you could:

1. create another sql login with sysadmin, whose pwd is stored...

Is the IP correct? can you ping it from the server originating the connection?

Could be firewall or you are not using the right port number.

You could do a proof of concept where you replicate a single table to 2500 databases on a different server.

Just write a program that generates the scripts and off you...

Found this from an OLD thread:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqlreplication/thread/850d6cf2-9414-443f-94e9-e6922e7e5646/

The error indicates that the Distributor agent is either processing a LOT of data or is hanging somewhere.

What is the state of the connections from the Distributor agent at both...

Are the new subscribers listening on the default port 1433.

If not you will need to create an alias via the SQL configuration manager

You can test logging into one of the new subscriber instances with the Distributor agent credentials.

Do this from the publisher machine.

If you can log in, then try to create a...

Any errors in the error log on the instance that is the subscriber?

Do all the subscriptions fail, or only the new ones you add?

This is happening because you have heap tables.

Each time it applies a snapshot, the records get deleted and then inserted again.

It is very common not to get space back when...

Unused space returned by sps_spaceused will almost never be zero.

BOL says: Total amount of space reserved for objects in the database, but not yet used.

This is extents or pages that...

What happens if you restart one of the existing Distribution jobs.

You may get cleaner errors in the job history.

Which agent job has the error. There should be a separate distributor job for each subscription

Did you generate a new snapshot?