Network Headache with transferdatabase

[KJones]

Here is the setup

There are three Machines all running Access97 & XP Pro

\\readingtill1 \\redingback \\redingtill2

on a LAN

And four dbs

\\redingtill1\till\till.mdb
\\redingback\art\backend.mdb
\\redingtill2\till\till.mdb
\\redingback\art\frontend.mdb

On startup redingtill1\till\till.mdb executes transferdatabase actions
to IMPORT the tables tblclerks & tblclerktill from
\\redingback\art\backend.mdb. The actions are preceded by deletes.
The imports execute without error.

Now \\redingback\art\frontend.mdb has a form bound to a query which is
formed by a join on the tables tblclerks & tbl clerktill (linked from
\\redingback\art\backend.mdb). This select query runs flawlessly until
today.

I disconnected \\redingtill2 fron the network after it had executed
its transferdatabase action. When I tried to run the query on
\\redingback\art\frontend it took 3 minutes to run. (this is for
tables with 18 and 10 records in them)
Re-connecting the \\redingtill2 db fixes the problem straight away.

Experimenting with different query designs,both the tblclerks and tbl
clerktill tables worked fine when joined to other tables. It was only
when joined to each other that the slowdown occured. All other
tables/queries are working as intended.

Does anyone have any ideas or experience of similar problems?
Any help gratefully received.