I'm trying to run the following code. Here's the preliminary setup stuff:

-- Create linked server connection:
exec sp_addlinkedserver N'REMOTE_SERVER'
, @srvproduct = N''
, @provider = N'SQLOLEDB'
, @datasrc = N'REMOTE_SERVER.ABC.XYZ.COM'

exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'collation compatible', N'false'
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'data access', N'true'
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'rpc out', N'true'
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'rpc', N'true'
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'use remote collation', N'true'
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'collation name', N'null'
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'connect timeout', 0
exec sp_serveroption N'REMOTE_SERVER', N'query timeout', 0

-- Create holding table

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[tmpResults] (
[server_name] [varchar] (20) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,
[results] [varchar] (8000) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

.... and here's what's giving me problems:

set nocount on
set quoted_identifier off

declare @srvname sysname,
@strExec varchar (8000)

select @srvname = 'REMOTE_SERVER'
select @strExec = "select '" + @srvname + "', * from openquery (" + @srvname
+ ", 'select @@version')"
insert tmpResults exec (@strExec)

When I get to the 'INSERT' step, I get the following error:

Server: Msg 7391, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The operation could not be performed because the OLE DB provider 'SQLOLEDB'
was unable to begin a distributed transaction.
[OLE/DB provider returned message: New transaction cannot enlist in the
specified transaction coordinator. ]
OLE DB error trace [OLE/DB Provider 'SQLOLEDB'
ITransactionJoin::JoinTransaction returned 0x8004d00a].

But, when I remove the 'INSERT' and just execute the string, I get:

REMOTE_SERVER Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 8.00.818 (Intel X86)
May 31 2003 16:08:15
Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
Standard Edition on Windows NT 5.0 (Build 2195: Service Pack 3)

The execute string looks like this:
select 'REMOTE_SERVER', * from openquery (REMOTE_SERVER, 'select @@version')

I'm setting my linked server connection using SQLOLEDB because of problems
with our WINS database, and according to BOL's entry 'sp_addlinkedserver'
(Footnote 1 after the table), "This way of setting up a linked server forces
the name of the linked server to be the same as the network name of the
remote SQL Server. Use server to specify the server." Therefore, I can't use
the name of the linked server as the @server parameter, and have to use the
fully qualified name of the server for the @datasrc parameter -- or so it
seems.

Any suggestions / help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike