Newbie: Merge Replication

I have setup merge replication and it appears to be working fine
multiple publishers to a single subscriber. with continuous push
subscription
If the subscribing SQL Server is unavailable for a period of time the
replication monitor shows an error
"could not connect to SERVERNAME"
Ok so fairly easy to understand.
Now when the subscribing server is available again it does not seem to
connect again. I can click the "start synchronizing" option from the
replication monitor, however I would have thought continuous updating would
reconnect when available.
If this is the case,
1. How can I make it connect/start sycnronising again sooner automatically,
without user invervention?
2. Am I able to call the start synchronising feature through commands so
that I can have a force update type feature through code.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Tim
Timmeah,
you could schedule the merge agent to run once a minute rather than
continuously. Alternatively you could force the job steps to run in a loop.
To start the merge agent in TSQL you can use sp_start_job.
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)