OK, to rephrase this somewhat differently. What is the best practice for setting up DTS jobs that need a sqlserver connection? Do people use Windows Authentication solely? If not how...

What I try to do is, make sure you know what your database has been doing. - Read the logs

make sure you know what your database's are going to be...

In my experience replication can make changes to the table structure - adding a unique key to some tables if one does not exist.

for what is'w worth this facility is available on Nero 6.x and works a treat.