OFF2000: Can't Connect to MSDE or SQL Server 7 Desktop Edition

ID: Q198977

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

You receive one of the following error messages when you try to connect to either the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) or SQL Server 7 Desktop Edition on a computer running either Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98:

"Test Connection Failed because of an error initializing the provider [DBNMPNTW] Specified SQL Server not found"
-or-
"Server: Msg 6, Level 16, State [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Named Pipes]Specified SQL Server Not Found"


CAUSE

Computers running Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 cannot accept incoming Named Pipes connections. If you install MSDE or Microsoft SQL Server 7 Desktop Edition on one of these computers, clients trying to connect to the server must use an alternate net library.


RESOLUTION

On each client that you intend to use to connect to MSDE or SQL Server 7 Desktop Edition running on Windows 95 or Windows 98, use the Client Network Utitlity to create an alias. Creating an alias allows you to specify which network library to use when connecting to a specific server.

To do this, follow these steps on each client:

  1. Click Start, and then click Run.


  2. In the Open box, type cliconfg.exe and press ENTER.


  3. On the General tab of the SQL Server Client Network Utility, click Add.


  4. In the Server Alias box, enter the name of the server that you want to connect to.


  5. In the Network Libraries Option Group, select TCP/IP.


  6. Click OK.


  7. On the General tab of the SQL Server Client Network Utility, click Apply, and then click OK.



MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Install the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) on a computer running Windows 95 or Windows 98.


  2. On a second computer, install Microsoft Office 2000. This is your client machine.


  3. On the client machine, click Start, point to Settings , and then click Control Panel.


  4. Open ODBC Data Sources (32bit).


  5. On the System DSN tab, click Add.


  6. Select SQL Server and click Finish.


  7. On the next screen, type the data source name and also the name of the computer on which you installed MSDE. A description is optional.


  8. Click Next.


  9. Enter the login information needed to connect to the server. If you have not changed the default settings on the server, you should select SQL Server Authentication with a Login ID of sa and no password.


  10. Click Next.

    Note that you see one of the errors mentioned in the "Symptoms" section of this article.


Additional query words: OFF2000 acc2000 inf prb 


Keywords          : kbdta AccCon 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999