Connect to SQL Server 2008 with TCP/IP

Question

I get the following error when I try to connect with TCP/IP from SQL Server Management Studio. I need a step by step description to solve my problem. What\'s wrong here?

Answer 1

When you check the SQL Server Network Configuration (Start Menu > Microsoft SQL Server > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager > SQL Server Network Configuration), what do you see?

Is the TCP/IP protocol really enabled on your server? It's off by default, and stays off in most cases (unless you specifically turn it on).

Just using a IP-based server address doesn't mean you're connecting using the TCP/IP protocol.... check http://www.connectionstrings.com/sql-server-2008 for a sample connection string that will use TCP/IP:

Data Source=190.190.200.100,1433;Network Library=DBMSSOCN;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User ID=myUsername;Password=myPassword;

The key is the Network Library=DBMSSOCN; which tells your code to connect using TCP/IP.