Application to SQL db

I'm not sure if this is the right section for the question, but here goes...

I have an application that needs to be run in network client mode. This app is supposed to connect to a SQL 2005 db hosted on a server. As I procede through the installation process I get a prompt when i populate the server\db information.

'The listener port was responsice, but did not return a primary port number for <servername>. Please verify that <servername> is a valid and running database before proceeding.

A little background is in order:

Host:

Server 2003 Standard

SQL Server 2005

Installed instance of said db

Client:

Windows XP Pro sp2

Network config:

We have a domain with about 125 workstations\laptops. Windows firewall is turned off using a group policy (makes it easier to push apps out to clients). For giggles I made exceptions to the 'turned off' firewall policies for the needed ports etc. This was done on both the host server and the client.

Thank you in advance.

Hi,

Is your SQL Server 2005 installed as a named instance? What needs to happen in order to connect is:

(a) The client needs to specify the server as servername\instancename.

(b) The client will try to "resolve" the instance name to an appropriate tcp port (or pipe name) via the SQLBrowser (SQL2005) / Listener thread (SQL 2000) functionality before opening an appropriate connection.

If SQL is installed as a "default" instance, the port is assumed to be 1433 and the resolution may be skipped.

The error message above seems to be application-specific. Is there a chance that the application setup is trying to do some "in-house" resolution by attempting to send/broadcast a packet to UDP port 1434 of the server? That is not supported and may cause problems. The message implies that it was able to talk to UDP port 1434 (Listener/SQLBrowser) and probably even got the list of instances, but did not find the desired instance in the list?

What you should try is a test connection within ODBC Administrator or a .UDL DataLink file to the server first. If this succeeds, contact the application support to find out what is missing in the connectivity on their end. If this fails, please post the exact error here.

HTH,
Jivko Dobrev - MSFT
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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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Hello,

The database that we are working with is indeed a named instance. The application that we are using to connect to the DB doesn't want to connect. The prompts that we recieve seem to hint that it does indeed see the database, but it gets kicked out. We have done every trick in the book in hopes that we could get this resolved. It is my belief at this point that the application is the issue and not the SQL db or said connectors.

Thank you for the response and have a wonderful day.