Search Function not working in Sharepoint 3.0

I also noticed there were many warning messages in the event log, coming every 15 minutes:
'The start address cannot be crawled' Context: Application 'Search index file on the search server', Catalog 'Search' Details: Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content, or add a crawl rule to crawl this content. (0x80041205)

Verify that the account you are using has "Full Read" permissions on the SharePoint Web Application being crawled. verify that the account you are using has "Full Read" permissions on the SharePoint Web Application being crawled.

How to troubleshoot and solve it:

From a newsgroup post: "There are some particulars that are not documented very well when setting up your search settings.
The search engine will only crawl on a site that is the default zone.
If the default zone is secured (https), search will not return any results and you will see this error in the application log.
To fix this, create and extend the current web application with a new site. The default settings will suffice for everything except the zone. Change the “Zone” to Internet or Custom. This new site will be the site the search service uses to index. Bear in mind the site uses the same content as your public SharePoint site.

After creating the site, go to Operations > Alternate Access Mappings and change the “Alternate Access Mapping Collection to your main SharePoint site collection.
Then click “Edit Public URLs” and swap the URLs in the fields such that the Default zone is the new “unsecured” SharePoint site.
The secure site can be in any zone except the default zone.Now when the search indexer runs, it will use the default zone site (the new unsecured site) to crawl.
That’s it.

See the link to "www.kevincornwell.com - Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 Search Setup Notes" for the original thread.

WSS Central Console --> Operations --> Alternate Address Mapping

In my case, I only reset the default Sharepoint - 80 site back to the servername.
Once this was configured, the crawling warnings went away.

Workaround also with these additional steps:

- Check accounts with permissions for search feature:
WSS Central Console --> Operations --> Services on Server --> Windows SharePoint Services Search Service Settings

- Select a content database
Central Admin -->Applicaton Management tab -->SharePoint Web Application Management heading --> Content databases
Ensure your web application is the one selectedSelect your content database nameUnder Search Server - select your server
OK