I recently reformatted my XP laptop and reinstalled SQL Server. Since I did
that I have been unable to access the SQL Server on my laptop from another
PC. When I go to register it from another PC I get:

"A connection could not be established to NAME-LAPTOP\NAME_LAPTOP.

Reason: SQL Server does not exist or access denied.
ConnectionOpen(Connect())"

The database is indeed running so I assume it must be some type of
permission problem. Both PCs are in the same domain. I have tried to connect
using Windows account information and SQL Server login information - both
get the same error. I also tried to connect from another PC to the laptop
with the same error. The laptop can see and access databases on each of
these other PC's so it is just reading from the laptop that is not possible.
I did disable my Norton Internet Security to make sure that the firewall
wasn't interferring but still get the same error.

I'm pulling my hair out and could really use your help. Thanks for taking
the time to read this.

InNeedOfAssistance wrote:
Show quoteHide quoteAre you trying to login via  Windows Authentication ? as the error message
seems that this login does not exist in the Security Logins. Do you have an
SQL Server ID you can just prove its Windows Auth with by logging in via that?


Alternatively I have had the problem with OS's where it uses Netpipes by
default which are blocked by the network, to prove this create an ODBC with
IP /Port to the SQL Server and prove this works.

InNeedOfAssistance wrote:
Show quoteHide quoteAre you trying to login via  Windows Authentication ? as the error message
seems that this login does not exist in the Security Logins. Do you have an
SQL Server ID you can just prove its Windows Auth with by logging in via that?


Alternatively I have had the problem with OS's where it uses Netpipes by
default which are blocked by the network, to prove this create an ODBC with
IP /Port to the SQL Server and prove this works.

I tried to login with the sa account when I used SQL Server login
information and a login that I know is valid on my laptop for the Windows
account information login.

Probably another important piece of information that I didn't mention is
that when trying to register this database from another PC, it never is
displayed as one of the available databases. There is a NAME-LAPTOP database
that shows as available (I assume the default from installing Visual Studio)
but no NAME-LAPTOP\NAME_LAPTOP database as this one is called. I was
wondering if it might help to uninstall and reinstall SQL Server. Do you
know if there are ever any conflict between the Visual Studio db and the
main SQL Server db depending on install order? At this point, I don't
remember which I installed first. At one point, I had installed the Visual
InterDev on the laptop by accident but deleted that and installed Visual
Studio. I don't know if that could have messed anything up or not too.

Using Visual Studio on the laptop I can connect to the
NAME-LAPTOP\NAME_LAPTOP database but if I go to another PC I can't connect
using Visual Studio.

Do you mean create a script to see if I can login that way?.

Show quoteHide quote

Just to let you all know - the uninstall and reinstall of the database on my
laptop fixed all my problems. I'm sorry I didn't try that from the
beginning.

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