An example of a google result that dealt with my linked server error.

I googled my linked server error when I could not get the SELECT statement to work using jn-svrdev1-vma\sql2005. The error was similar to this:

• The OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server reported an error. Authentication failed.

I did find a useful(?) SELECT statement that might at some point help me understand the status of linked servers; but, at this point I can't interpret it. It is as follows:

• select S.server_id, S.name, S.provider,S.data_source,S.provider_string, L.uses_self_credential
  from sys.servers as S, sys.linked_logins as L
  where S.server_id=L.server_id and S.name=N'TypeServerNameHere'

Of course, I hope you understand 'TypeServerNameHere' is actually replaced by your server name you are trying to access.

What did help me in this google result, was the last post where the guy having the problem resolved the issue by using the option "Login using this security context".

He did not state where he did this. I found in the SQL Managment Studio in my database Server Objects under Linked Server properties for the server I'm trying to link.

Here is the link to the forum posts that discuss his issue: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=990327&SiteID=1