All attempts to access MSDE fail

[GaryK]

I have MSDE installed on my Windows 2003 Server and the service is running.

From my server via Remote Desktop I have tried using WebMatrix to create a new connection, the ODBC manager to create a new DSN, and EM (installed just the tools from the trial version of SQL2K).

No matter what method I use to try and connect to MSDE I get an error message stating: SQL Server does not exist or access was denied.

I'm looking for suggestions on what I am doing wrong.

Thank you.

[GaryK]

I finally got EM to cooperate with Tiny Server Firewall and was able to register MSDE with EM.

I was somewhat surprised to see how many servers I saw when I went through the Register SQL Server Wizard.

MERCURY
MERCURY\SECUNDUS
SB-WEBBER
SERVER1
SERVER197
SERVER201
SERVER205
SERVER228
SERVER235

I'm no DBA but surely it can't be a good thing that all these servers seem to be available for me to connect to.

Perhaps someone at SB will be interested in this?

[KyleMulligan]

Perhaps you don't know this, but the default SQL Server port, 1433, is blocked on the SB network. I believe 1434 is too. :)

[GaryK]

Hi Kyle.

Yep, I am aware of the port blocking and actually like it. I don't want anyone to get to MSDE from outside of my server, not even me. All my attempts to use EM took place on my server at SB.

I am surprised you made no mention of all the other instances of MSDE/SQL Server I could see from via EM. If these people are using TCP/IP instead of, or in addition to Named Pipes it seems they forgot to tick the box to hide their server.