merge replication, help!

Hi,

I'm setting up a merge replication between one publisher(sql server 2005 standard sp2) and a couple of subscribers(sql server 2005 express sp2). They are connected with each other through VPN tunnels(1.5M adsl connections). I'm using pull replication, every 20 minutes. The initial snapshot replication was finished properly for each subscriber, but after several hours, the subscribers keep getting such kind of error message "Another merge agent for the subscription or subscriptions is running, or the server is working on a previous request by the same agent. (Source: MSSQLServer, Error number: 21036)". it looks like the vpn tunnel is not good sometimes, and the merge agent just sits there waiting. then another request comes in, it cannot get the handler of that agent which is held by the previous request. So how can i configure the server to release the agent when a new request comes in? or setup the timeout for each request?

Any idea would be appreciated.

Thank you very much!
Maybe you can consider -QueryTimeout parameter for the merge agent?|||thanks for reply.
but would u be able to tell me how to do that?
|||oh, sorry, i found it. the current timeout is 300, just 5 minutes. but i set the merge replication every 20 minutes. then how come this happens?
|||QueryTimeout is how long the merge agent will wait on a given query before timing out. The 20 minutes you specified sounds like the scheduled intervals at which the subscription will synchronize.