MOSS out of the box search error

Recently while configuring the out of the box search for a MOSS site, I encountered the following error : Your search cannot be completed because of a service error. Try your search again or contact your administrator for more information.
In order to fix the error, please make sure the application pool, the site is running under, has access to the search index. Here are the steps to follow:

• First make sure the MOSS Search Service is running. Check the event viewer for error messages. If everything is ok, go to the next step
• Find out the application pool account the site is running under(network service, local account or another account)
• Go to Central administration -> SSP settings -> Search
• Check the default content access and make sure it is the same as the above one