EdomGroup Blog

This is a reference guide to change the settings in SQL Express Server to allow remote conections. I found most of my information at http://www.datamasker.com/SSE2005_NetworkCfg.htm , and I will be trying to simplify what is said there.

1. Configure SQL to use TCP/IP connections as well as local connections in the Surface Area Configuration Utility.
   Select the Services and Connections section.
   Under Database Engine -> Remote Connections choose to use local and remote connections (TCP/IP only or TCP/IP and named pipes). You can also do this in the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool under:
   SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration -> Protocols for SQL Express
2. Now restart/start the SQL Server service.
3. You now need to configure Windows Firewall (only if you have it running) to exempt SQL Server and SQL Server Browser. To do this you simply need to add sqlservr.exe and sqlbrowser.exe to the exceptions.
   
   The files can be found at:
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe.

You should have a successfully configured SQL Server, so start trying to connect to it remotely. If you are still having issues it may be necessary to restart the computer for all changes to take place.

Craig.