Merge Agent retrying forever

We have a Merge Replication with Publisher and Distributor on SQL Server 2000 SP3 and Subscribers running Personal SQL Server 2000 SP2 synchronizing through VPN phone lines.
From time to time one or more subscribers can't reconnect to the Publisher. By inspecting their Merge Agents (through the Replication Monitor) in the Publisher Server we see that they are marked as retrying forever. In the distribution database MSmerge_hi
story table these agents have the "runstatus" column marked with 5 (retry).
We are not able to stop the agents. We have shut down the Publisher server but still the agents show the same status. We have noticed that in order to solve the problem we must synchronize those subscribers through UTP fast cables.
Any help will be appreciated
Righth click on the merge agent and click on Agent Properties. Click on the
Steps tab and double click on a step. On the Edit Step window, click on
the Advanced tab and change the number of retry attempts to a number other
than the default (usually 10 for the run Agent step and 0 for the other
two). I put 2 for all of my steps. You should also change the retry
interval, I put 1 for mine. Click apply and next to set the next step.
Hope this helps.
"Tony2000" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F71724A8-457A-4B2F-BB8D-B92B0EC3ADD2@.microsoft.com...
> We have a Merge Replication with Publisher and Distributor on SQL Server
2000 SP3 and Subscribers running Personal SQL Server 2000 SP2 synchronizing
through VPN phone lines.
> From time to time one or more subscribers can't reconnect to the
Publisher. By inspecting their Merge Agents (through the Replication
Monitor) in the Publisher Server we see that they are marked as retrying
forever. In the distribution database MSmerge_history table these agents
have the "runstatus" column marked with 5 (retry).
> We are not able to stop the agents. We have shut down the Publisher server
but still the agents show the same status. We have noticed that in order to
solve the problem we must synchronize those subscribers through UTP fast
cables.
> Any help will be appreciated
sql