Error when creating replication: Cannot use SAVE TRANSACTION within a distributed transaction

[SammyBar]

Hi,

Recently we changed the hard disk of our production server for a bigger one,
so W2K was reinstalled and the database (sql server 2k sp3) was recovered
from backup. Database was updated to SP4. Now I'm trying to restore the
replication setup we had but I'm having troubles. Our replication
configuration is the following: we use a separate distributor that is
connected to the internet. The upgraded server is the publisher and it is
inside a firewall. The firewall is open to sql and RPC traffic in a limited
range of ports, to allow distributed transaction coordinator (DTC) to work
between both servers. The only change I had to do was to configure registry
in the upgraded server to allow for DTC firewalling as indicated in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250367/EN-US/.
But when trying to configure the simplest snapshot replication on the
upgraded server I get the following error:

"SQL Server Enterprise Manager could not create publication 'Northwind' from
database 'Northwind'
Error 627: Cannot use SAVE TRANSACTION within a distributed transaction"

I tryed the same publication on a separate, test server and all works OK.
Then I tryed to run the replication creation script that worked on the test
server, on the upgraded server with the following results:

-- Enabling the replication database
use master
GO

exec sp_replicationdboption @dbname = N'Northwind', @optname = N'publish',
@value = N'true'
GO

use [Northwind]
GO

-- Adding the snapshot publication
exec sp_addpublication @publication = N'hpxNorthwind', @restricted =
N'false', @sync_method = N'native', @repl_freq = N'snapshot', @description =
N'Snapshot publication of Northwind database from Publisher SQLSERVHPX.',
@status = N'active', @allow_push = N'true', @allow_pull = N'true',
@allow_anonymous = N'false', @enabled_for_internet = N'false',
@independent_agent = N'false', @immediate_sync = N'false', @allow_sync_tran
= N'false', @autogen_sync_procs = N'false', @retention = 336,
@allow_queued_tran = N'false', @snapshot_in_defaultfolder = N'true',
@compress_snapshot = N'false', @ftp_port = 21, @ftp_login = N'anonymous',
@allow_dts = N'false', @allow_subscription_copy = N'false',
@add_to_active_directory = N'false'

This sp_addpublication command returns the error:
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]ConnectionCheckForData
(CheckforData()).
Server: Msg 11, Level 16, State 1, Line 0
General network error. Consult network documentation.
Connection Broken

What can be wrong? May be the DTC firewalling configuration is not working
properly? But it is not the first time we configure this. We have several
server inside and outside the firewall replicating between them without
problems for several years. In these years we had restored both publishers
and distributor without this problem.

Any hint is welcomed
Thanks in advance
Sammy

[SammyBar]

The problem was solved the following way:
The publisher server had "Enforce distributed transaction (MTS)" checked. We
unchecked this and restarted all the services, including MSDTC. After that
the problem disappeared.

Hope it helps anybody else.
Sammy