exchange 2003 replication issues (public folders)

Scenario: we have 1 physical windows 2000/exchange 2003 box that we are migrating to a new windows 2003/exchange 2003 virtual server. the existing (physical) server is also a DC, something we are not replicating in the new 2003 server.

i'm following some good articles and KBs on the steps necessary to replicate all the data, but am running into issues with it actually working.

I am currently trying to replicate the public folders before I attempt the mailboxes, and this is where i am running into my first issues. I have followed http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842273 and have enabled maximum logging on both servers. Following the suggested troubleshooting, i have discovered that i AM able to create new public folders on the NEW exchange server, and have it replicate back to the existing (old) server. Doing this results in both an outgoing event on the new server, and an incoming event on the old server. using the message tracking, these successful messages show the following results when searching for RTEXCHANGE-is (new server account) on the old server: sender email: RTEXCHANGE-IS@localhost

SMTP: message submitted to advanced queuing
SMTP: started message submission to advanced queue
SMTP: message submitted to categorizer
SMTP: message categorized and queded for routing
SMTP: message queued for local delivery
SMTP message delivered locally to FEMAIL-IS@localhost (this is our old server)
SMTP store Driver: message delivered locally to store to FEMAIL-IS@localhost

however, attempting to either send hierarchy or resend changes from the OLD server to the NEW results in only the outgoing event veiwer message on the old server, none on the new (dest) server. Also, the message tracking only displays results on the old (source) server, and shows nothing on the new (dest) server. the old (source) server logs this in message tracking:

SMTP store driver: message submitted from store
SMTP: message submitted to advanced queuing
SMTP: started message submission to advanced queue
SMTP: message submitted to categorizer
SMTP: message categorized and queded for routing
SMTP: message routed and queued for remote delivery
SMTP: started outbound transfer of message

interestingly, on only 1 of my many attempts, after 5 minutes this message follows: Message transferred to smtp.tonkin.com through SMTP

please note smtp.tonkin.com does not exist and is not setup anywhere.

As far as routing groups go, I only have 1. For SMTP connectors i have the default Internet Mail SMTP Connector, set to * with a cost of 1. In this connector i have it setup to forward all mail to a smart host @ [172.16.18.239] which is our actual mail/spam server.

Thanks!

Justin