Inspired by common emails and questions I聽 see, I figured I鈥檇 do a series of blog posts on common mistakes folks make with SQL Server called Monday Morning Mistakes (or #sqlM3 for short, since we all love quick hashtags these days). These are meant as quick fixes, nothing too comprehensive. Also since I just made up a hashtag, feel free to share your own anytime! Without further ado鈥�
Today鈥檚 quick issue: Can connect to SQL Server locally but can鈥檛 connect from other server or computer.
Quick answer: Remote connections (read also: any connections that are not local) to SQL Server are disabled by default. This behavior is default in SQL Server 2005 and higher. You have to manually enable TCP/IP protocol to instance to allow connectivity. This requires a service restart to take effect.