Thanks for the feedback from everyone.

Grant, how do you receive forum alerts from MSDN? I've tried setting up alerts thru my Windows Live account, but they don't seem to...

Error seems fairly poignant...you mentioned it's across a different domain, I'm wondering if you're running into the AD replication cycle or something.

Hard to tell what the problem...

Any errors in the event log (SQL and Windows events) on the receiving server? Wonder if you have something running there that bogs down the server, or drops connections...

I've used SQL Server DTS successfully, so I'm sure the SSIS packages are just as nice. I've also used the SSMA for migrating Access, fairly clean interface also.

I'm curious about this problem now, also, as I have to administer a few SS2K boxes and could see this happening to me. I still think it's a port...

Open a Windows DOS prompt and try and telnet to your SQL Server on port 1433:

telnet <IP address> 1433

(Replace <IP address> with the actual IP address of the remote SQL...

Since you can't connect remotely, is there a firewall rule in place keeping you from getting port 1433?

I haven't seen any issues with KB970892 on my systems.

My port suggestion only makes sense if the service is running (in the Windows Service list) but can't be connected to thru SSMS.

If the service isn't running, go...

In your list of Windows Services, look for the service specific to your 'SHAREPOINT' instance. It will say

SQL Server (SHAREPOINT)

If this isn't running, you won't be able to connect...

Thanks Lowell, makes a lot of sense. Didn't even think about doing it this way, either. This is goin' in the toolbox.

I'd like to get some feedback regarding this question, also. In two different jobs, my storage admins have said that the SAN/NetApp would handle the disparate I/O, so it's...

Thanks Scott, 'preciate the feedback. Interestingly, I found this blog also:

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/acalvett/archive/2007/12/30/the-job-whose-owner-kept-coming-back.aspx

It posts some code to help.

Dedicated server? Do you mean a single instance (default or named) hosting a single database? Here are some benefits of a separate instance:

Can allocate specific memory to that...

Did it run as your user (the user you're logged in as)? Seems whenever I created T-SQL jobs, it uses my credentials.