Well it's good news that you can connect somehow.

However, I cannot tell you where the error is occurring, only suggest some
tests that may help pin things down, which is what (a) and (b) were about.

When you connect via DDE, you are always starting a local copy of Access
wherever the database is located. From what you have said (you made no
changes on your system, you could see the list of tables/queries in your DB)
I assumed that DDE was enabled in Access, but you should probably verify
that Access Tools|Options|Advanced|"Ignore DDE Requests" is /not/ checked
and that the OLE/DDE timeout is not set to a low value (I think the default
is 30 sec.)

If you tried (b), or can try (b) with a /local/ DB (either something you
create yourself or perhaps even a copy of your network DB if you're allowed
to make one) and it works OK, then the problem is likely to be to do with
the network rather than your local configuration (it could be a timing or
security-related problem). That's also consistent with the "you have changed
nothing on your machine", although if you're getting automated updates,
other stuff may have changed.

If you can't even get a DDE connection to a simple local database then I
think it's more likely to be a problem on your machine (especially if other
people can connect to the same DB just fine), but that's about as much as I
would try to pin it down on the info. available.

Peter Jamieson