>
> I keep getting "Unable to open  the Sharepoint Portal server  named
> '<servername>'" when launching  the Sharepoint portal  Server Administration.

Is your workspace running properly? (no stop sign in IIS)

>
> My proxy  setting is as follows:
> Flags = PROXY_TYPE_DIRECT | PROXY_TYPE_PROXY
> Proxy Server = webproxy.merck.com:8080
> Bypass list  = *.merck.com;<local>
>

Try this entry as bypass list:
'*merck.com;<local>'

Yes, my workspace is running properly. (No stop sign symbols in IIS)

'*merck.com;<local>' -- I tried this as bypass list.

Restarted the MS Search and WWW Publishing Services.

No luck.

Any other ideas?

I think you'll also have to restart the SPS service.
Or better, as recommended in SPS documentation, reboot the machine
after using the proxycfg tool.

Check the event logs see if there are any errors. Also try to stop the
Sharepoint Service and MS Exchange Information Store. Restart them Info
store first then the SPS Service.

I rebooted the server. No luck still.

Win2000 server  with SP2
Hotfixes identified:
Q282522
Q282784
Q300972
Q301625

No error that is related to SPS.

I took a screen shot of the event logs so maybe you could see if there is,
in fact, no error related to SPS.

I restarted MS Exchange Info Store and then SPS.

I still get the error "Unable to open  the sharepoint  Portal server  named
'<servername>'".

try to reinstall the SPS (to repair) - it must helps. I had the same problem
when i installed some tooles after the SPS installation.