I posted last night about authentication issues using RoboCopy to copy to HQ over VPN.  I stayed with it (like old dogs do) and found the solution.  Incredible but true, but the solution was to use a Windows 2000 Server as the destination instead of Windows 2003!

One of those “Well I'll be darn!” fixes.  I'm sure someone knows the specific W2K3 technical reason why this is the case.  For me I'll conclude its one of those “all the doors and windows closed” compared to “all the doors and windows open” sort of things.

btw, thank you to William Bartholomew and Michael Carr for your input on robocopy alternatives.  Those comments are found in the original.  I did investigate XXCopy and all I gotta say is SWITCH CITY, BABY!  /s /ca /cb, that sort of thing.  Hundreds of 'em.  They're in the xxcopy help file which I piped to a text file here.