Hi David

thanks very much for your help so far

well i have tested all replication from two sql 2005 servers internally and all works fine

so all i have done is replicated this to two servers that are in two external locations

Server 1 being the publisher and server 2 taking the subscriptions

what i need to add is they are connected to two different domains and connected by a vpn

I haven't got a script to authenticate is this what I am missing?

I have added the ip and name to the host file for both servers enabling me to browse files with a username and password etc

the new error i am getting now when i try and setup replication points to a updated server name but this is not the case for me and the server name has never changed.

I can also connect to the remote server from Sql management consol but just cant setup replication

i hope this helps