Communication issue, possible worm?

Good morning. I recently started a part-time gig maintaining a small network for a hair salon. Day one was "trial by fire", as the main database had crashed...

For starters, the previous geek seemed rather complacent about virus protection, as the virus definitions were about 2 1/2 years out of date, so I'm thinking that the problem with the database may (but not sure) have been virus related. I upgraded to Norton Antivirus 2005 and loaded it on all 3 terminals, and also loaded Spybot S&D and Ad Aware SE. After scrubbing the boxes with these programs and then running the database rebuilder for the program they are using (it's called "Elite", more on that in a second), the Elite application fires off no problem and the database is intact.

My issue now is that the 2 "satellite" terminals cannot connect to the "server". I can ping all day long, and I can browse and see the shared folders, etc. In talking with the tech support at "Elite" (it is a software prodeuct designed for hair salons), the guy told me that everything is configured properly, yet the error I get states that the main terminal doesn't exist. His assessment of the situation is that I may have a worm on the box that is affecting the port that the software is trying to communicate over - which I'm a tad dubious but.....

I guess my question to the forum is - Is there something available out there that will do a thorough search for any kind of malicious code that may be affecting this box at that level? I would appreciate your comments!

Thanks,
Strunza

 

My bad, pardon me for not following the forum regs:

Both the management workstation and the remote are XP SP1. I cannot put on SP2 yet, as it will render the Elite program inoperable and they are working on a patch.

Both stations are clones with 512 mb RAM, 40 GB hard drives, and I believe 1.2 GB processors. Nothing special.