Using ENT Server with SQL Server 2000

A number of things could prevent a successful connection to MSDE or MSSQL Server. The most likely causes are

1. Your server is not configured to accept SQL Server Authentication (which our software requires in order to establish a connection). For more information on how to enable this, please see our knowledge base article:  How to configure MSDE/SQL to allow SQL Server authentication .

2. You are specifying either "localhost" or an IP address for an the address of your SQL Server, even though this is running on the local machine. If your MSDE or SQL Server is running on the same machine as ENT Server , then you should specify "(local)" as the address for your SQL Server. This will force ENT Server to connect to your SQL Server using the shared memory pipe for SQL Server, which is guaranteed to be installed, enabled and accessible to applications running on the same machine as the SQL Server.
    
3. The machine where your SQL Server is installed does not have the correct network libraries installed and enabled. If your SQL Server is on a different machine to the machine that your ENT Server is installed on, ENT Server needs to connect to your SQL Server using one of the network protocols that has been configured for your SQL Server (typically TCP/IP or Named Pipes - but your server may be configured to use other protocols if you have a Novell network, for example). For further information, see Microsoft KB Article: 841252 .

4. The machine where your ENT Server is installed is not configured to use the correct network libraries. For further information, see the Microforge.net knowledge base article Configure MSDE Protocols ([DBNMPNTW] Access Denied) .

5. Your SQL Server is installed on a network machine that is running either Windows 2003 Server or Windows XP SP2. In this case, even if your SQL Server has the correct network libraries installed (see above), the Windows Firewall may be preventing your SQL Server from receiving any requests from the network. In this case you will need to add add an exception to the Windows Firewall on the machine where your SQL Server is installed. For further information, see Microsoft KB Article: 841252 .

If none of these helps, the Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Potential causes of the "SQL Server does not exist or access denied" error message . may be useful.