If you have recently installed SQL Server 2005, for security purposes, external and remote access is not enabled by default. If you try to connect to a SQL Server database from an external machine you may see one of the following errors.
- SQL server does not allow remote connections
- SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified
- 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.(provider:Named Pipes Provider,error:40-Could not open connection to SQL Server))
- Server does not exist or access denied
Three steps to Enable SQL 2005 for Remote Access
- Enable the TCP/IP protocol using the Surface Area Configuration Utility
- Enable the TCP/IP protocol for the network adapter in the SQL Server Configuration Utility
- Start the SQL Server Browser
