ORA-12571:TNS:PACKET WRITER FAILURE - NOT A TECH, BUT NEED 8i HELP BADLY

My company has recently been deserted by the tech folks managing our systems, including the Oracle 8i db, which is the back-end to our website. Here's our platform:

Compaq Proliant 3000
OS:NT 4.0, OP 6
Cold Fusion Server 4.0
Oracle 8i - ver. 8.1.5

Our website was running flawlessly until the following changes were made -

Upgraded to service pack 6
Installed NIMDA virus patch (from Microsoft) Updated Compaq controllers and bios (recommended by Compaq)

After all was installed, we now experience the following symptoms from Oracle:

• The database, which normally starts up almost instantly, is taking approx 8 minutes to get going
• After up and running without issue for approx 5-10 minutes, the db shuts down with the following error message: ORA-12571:TNS:PACKET WRITER FAILURE. When the db is up, there is no connectivity problem with cold fusion server, the site runs as it were normal.

I am in the unfortunate position of having to manage this issue with no experience, so any help or suggestions would be EXTREMELY appreciated.

Thanks...JW Received on Tue Oct 02 2001 - 13:05:28 CDT