Information Technology: How To enable remote connection on SQL Server 2008 Express

In this Post I will explain you how to connect SQL server Express Edition 2008 Remotely.When we try to connect SQL Remotely we will receive following error messages

“Cannot connect to SQL-Server-Instance-Name
An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005 (Same for 2008), this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 28 – Server doesn’t support requested protocol) (Microsoft SQL Server)”

“Cannot connect to SQL-Server-Instance-Name
Login failed for user ‘username‘. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 18456)

To enable remote connection on SQL Server 2008 Express, see the step below:

Start SQL Server Browser service if it’s not started yet. SQL Server Browser listens for incoming requests for Microsoft SQL Server resources and provides information about SQL Server instances installed on the computer.
Enable TCP/IP protocol for SQL Server 2008 Express to accept remote connection.
(Optional) Change Server Authentication to SQL Server and Windows Authentication. By default, SQL Server 2008 Express allows only Windows Authentication mode so you can connect to the SQL Server with current user log-on credential. If you want to specify user for connect to the SQL Server, you have to change Server Authentication to SQL Server and Windows Authentication.

Note: In SQL Server 2008 Express, there isn’t SQL Server Surface Area Configuration so you have to configure from SQL Server Configuration Manager instead.

Step-by-step

Open SQL Server Configuration Manager. Click Start -> Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> Configuration Tools -> SQL Server Configuration Manager.

On SQL Server Configuration Manager, select SQL Server Services on the left window. If the state on SQL Server Browser is not running, you have to configure and start the service. Otherwise, you can skip to step 6.

Double-click on SQL Server Browser, the Properties window will show up. Set the account for start SQL Server Browser Service. In this example, I set to Local Service account.

On SQL Server Browser Properties, move to Service tab and change Start Mode to Automatic. Therefore, the service will be start automatically when the computer starts.
Click OK to apply changes.

Back to SQL Server Configuration Manager, right-click on SQL Server Bowser on the right window and select Start to start the service.

On the left window, expand SQL Server Network Configuration -> Protocols for SQLEXPRESS. You see that TCP/IP protocol status is disabled.

Right-click on TCP/IP and select Enable to enable the protocol.

There is a pop-up shown up that you have to restart the SQL Service to apply changes.

On the left window, select SQL Server Services. Select SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) on the right window -> click Restart. The SQL Server service will be restarted.