Linked server communication

Hi everyone,

I've got problem querying remote tables via a specific linked server.
The server from which I execute the query is an SQLServer2005 and the linked server is an SQLServer2000.

If I do select * from <linked server>.<database name>.<db owner>.<Table1> after a while I get the following error message
"Server: Msg 10054, Level 16, State 1, Line 0, TCP Provider: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host."

I execute the query using profiler and I got the following profiler error: 'OLE DB provider "Unknown" for linked server "(null)" supported the schema lock interface, but returned "0x80040e96" for "ReleaseSchemaLock".' (The query returns a subset of records before it is forcibly stopped)

The strange thing is that i used to run the same query a week or two ago and faced no problem.

Please help.

It apears that the 2000 server closes the connection for some reason. You may find answer to in engine forum.