>These lines of code reliably work in Windows 2000
>They reliably give "timeout expired" in Windows 98 (connecting to a Windows 2000 SQL Server) once, but if repeated will connect instantly.
>
> oConnection = CreateObject("adodb.connection")
> oConnection.ConnectionString="PROVIDER=SQLOLEDB;SERVER=";
> +trim(odbcservername)+";DATABASE="+trim(odbcdatabase);
> +";UID="+trim(odbcusername)+";PWD="+trim(loginpass)+";"
> ret=oConnection.Open
>

What version of MDAC is installed in those computers? The SQL Server 2000 requires version 2.6 or later.