Hi, I connected to "\my.re.al.ip\schema_name" from the client PC and got the following. What to be enabled on the server?

The error message means that the application was not able to find the SQL Server instance you specified. There can be a number of reasons for that: The server and/or instance name is misspelled. The server is not running. There is a firewall blocking the way. The server is not enabled for remote connections. And the list goes on. Since we don't your environment we cannot say exactly what is wrong, but only suggest troubleshooting. This document can be helpful.

"\my.re.al.ip\schema_name" With a slash at the beginning of the server name? That's wrong, also "\schema_name" remove it and use only the IP address.

Connection issue to DB - Microsoft Q&A

Accepted answer

Erland Sommarskog 112.7K Reputation points MVP

2023-10-12T21:23:20.75+00:00
The error message means that the application was not able to find the SQL Server instance you specified. There can be a number of reasons for that:

The server and/or instance name is misspelled.

The server is not running.

There is a firewall blocking the way.

The server is not enabled for remote connections.

And the list goes on. Since we don't your environment we cannot say exactly what is wrong, but only suggest troubleshooting. This document can be helpful.
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Peter_1985 2,686 Reputation points

2023-10-13T01:30:05.97+00:00

Many thanks.

Peter_1985 2,686 Reputation points

2023-10-13T01:53:55.5466667+00:00

I have enable port 1433 on SQL server like

and get the following. Is it a problem?

Erland Sommarskog 112.7K Reputation points MVP

2023-10-13T20:41:54.7066667+00:00

Not necessarily.

To understand this, we first need to know that you can have many instances of SQL Server on the same machine. Each instance will use its own port. One of these instances is known as the default instance. That is, when you connect and you only say MACHINE, this refers to the default instance. And traditionally, the default instance listens on port 1433. All other instances are named instances, and you connect to them by saying MACHINE\INSTANCE. These named instances listens to some other port. Either one you set explicitly, or a port that is selected dynamically. (But which typically only will change if there is a collision on that port).

One thing to observe is that when you install Express edition, it will default to install as named instance with the instance name SQLEXPRESS. I should also point that there can still named instances, even if there is no default instance.

For this thing with instance name to work when you connect remotely, the Browser service must be running, and it always listens on UDP port 1434. (UDP and TCP are two different protocols.)

However, you can always connect by port number. So to connect to this instance, you could say MACHINE,61838. When you supply port number, any instance name is ignored.

Peter_1985 2,686 Reputation points

2023-10-14T02:48:33.7066667+00:00

I still get

when using "my.re.al.ip,61838" as server name, with the proper DB account name and password.

Erland Sommarskog 112.7K Reputation points MVP

2023-10-14T09:48:29.71+00:00

As I said before, we don't know your environment. We can explain how things work, but we can't say what exactly you are doing wrong. What we can say is that at this point username/password does not matter. You are not coming that far to have them validated.

It is not clear to me, but you are connecting from a remote machine and not from the same machine that SQL Server is running on?

Nor is it clear to me if my.re.al.ip is a funky server name or a placeholder for an IP-address like 192.168.145.23. In any case, you also need to check firewall configurations.

Peter_1985 2,686 Reputation points

2023-10-16T09:35:59.4433333+00:00

I tried to connect to that by "correct IP,61838" (correct IP is the exact real IP) and got the issue in above. Which port in firewall should be adjusted?

Erland Sommarskog 112.7K Reputation points MVP

2023-10-16T20:47:56.96+00:00

You would have to open port 61838 on the SQL Server machine.
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