Mark,
Thanks so much for your reply. Good to know I'm not the only one who has seen this. Based on your experience, it is interesting to see that the problem/bug still exists in RS 15.7.1. And, like you, I created a new connection to the replicate database just prior to defining the subscription.
Also, my biggest concern was the message "DIST for '[server].[database]' is waiting for SQM(s) to flush to outbound queue(s)." But it seems that all transactions made it to the replicates.
One other bit of info is that eventually all our distributors when down. But one of them, I'm sure, did not have any activity or transactions going through, but it went done at 1 a.m. this morning.
Which makes me wonder if there is some sort of housekeeping thread that might have triggered it.
Kevin