error while connecting sql express 2005 over the network

Question

Hello Experts,

I am getting an error while connecting sql express server 2005 over the network.

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections.

I have tried following things. 1. Allow remote connection along with both TCP and named pipe checked in both (target and initiator machine) in surface configuration manager. 2. sql browser is on automatic mode and running on both the machines.

Still I am not able to connect to machine.

I could see the server name (without "/sqlexpress") with the list but not able to connect. I think if it could start showing TargetServer/sqlexpress then I could connect it easily.

Please guide me if I am missing anything.

Thanks in advance.
Anil

Answer 1

This is a pretty common problem, because by default, the remote support is turned off, and firewalling is enabled, so turning on the service doesn't always open the port.

Have a look at the answer to this MSDN question