IP Access to SQL Server

Question

Hello,

We have a Windows VPS server using SQL Server 2005 for our e-commerce site.

A while back we were suffering from attempts to access the database remotely so someone made changes so that only the IP of the server itself could access data. That was about 18 months ago and everything has been fine since.

However, we now have a second site (hosted on another VPS) that needs to access the same database and I can't get in contact with the person who made the original changes.

I know he was working in the SQL Server Management tool when he made the changes, can anyone point me in the correct direction.

Thanks.

Answer 1

He might have turned the TCP/IP protocol off. In this case only the localhost can access the database. This link describes the procedure for sql server express, but the idea is the same

Answer 2

SQL Server 2005 came locked down by default. Rather than SSMS, it also installs the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration tool, which has a Remote Connections setting where you can limit it to Local connections only.

You may also like to check any firewall on the server, which will have to allow Port 1433 (or different if changed from the default) TCP access from whichever machines you want to access it.