Unable to connect to SQL Server Express Locally or Remotely

[Billy]

I have read all of the posts regarding this subject as well as 3
"Dummies" guides and I keep having the same problems. I have a very
simple multi-user application that has to hit a database. We
cuerrently have this system deployed and it is working fine on a
domain based network. We are scaling back and the network we will be
using is now a workgroup not a domain.

It should be simple. I have XP boxes (clients) trying to hit the SQL
Server Express database on a Windows Server 2003 machine. It is a
closed network so security is not an issue. I am trying to make this
thing wide open. All I want is for the user to be logged in on his
client machine, run the application, and access/update the database
without having to re-authenticate to the SQL server. I want windows
to handle all of the authentication between the XP machines and the
Server 2003 machine.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Erland Sommarskog]

Billy (bi*********@keesler.af.mil) writes:

I have read all of the posts regarding this subject as well as 3
"Dummies" guides and I keep having the same problems. I have a very
simple multi-user application that has to hit a database. We
cuerrently have this system deployed and it is working fine on a
domain based network. We are scaling back and the network we will be
using is now a workgroup not a domain.

It should be simple. I have XP boxes (clients) trying to hit the SQL
Server Express database on a Windows Server 2003 machine. It is a
closed network so security is not an issue. I am trying to make this
thing wide open. All I want is for the user to be logged in on his
client machine, run the application, and access/update the database
without having to re-authenticate to the SQL server. I want windows
to handle all of the authentication between the XP machines and the
Server 2003 machine.

In a workgroup? That is not that easy. Since you don't give much
information, I don't know what your setup looks like, and what error
message you get.

To get Windows authentication to work in a workgroup, the user must
have the same username on his client machine that he has one the server.
Furthermore, he needs to have the same password. There is also a group
policy setting that you may need to set. Run gpedit.msc, and go to the
node: Local Computer Policy->Computer Configuration->Windows Settings->
Security Settings->Local Policies->Security Options. Scroll down to
Network Access: Sharing and security mode for local accounts. Set this
to Classic.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

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