How to connect vb2005 express and SqlServer Express through a network
Dear all,
I installed Visual Basic 2005 Express and SqlServer Express.
I tried some features of both of them but I'm not able to connect a databse through a network.
To explain, I have two computer in the same work group. In one of them I have installed SqlServer Express and the other one works as client, i mean, i want to develop a software able to connect to the first one and make operation with the database.
Using the "DataSource Configuration Wizard" I have to indicate the "database file name" which is not visible through the network.
With the VB6 and MSDE2000, using a connection string, it was easy to connect to a server through a network.
How can I solve this problem using VB2005 Express and SqlServer Express?
Can I use similar connection string?
Any comment is useful
Thanks in advance
[850 byte] By [
RosarioM] at [2007-12-17]
One Thing I've been able to do might be a little bit dangerous, but I'll tell you anyways,
VBExpress connects only to an .mdf file, this is the same file extension the SQL Server uses to store it's data.
What I've done is point my VBExpress Database connection wizard at the SQLExpress data file location for the Database I want to use, on my computer it is located at
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\
of course this bypasses all the record lock and concurrency functionality of SQL Server, but at the moment I'm waiting for my full version copy of VS 2005 to arrive so I'll be changing the dataconnection later anyways.
Glenn’s comment that SQL Express can only connect to local database is not correct. (Sorry Glenn) It is true that SQL Express installs by default to only allow local connections, but you can configure SQL Express to accept remote connections just like every other Edition of SQL, here’s how:
1.Enable remote connections using either the Surface Area Configuration Tool or the SQL Server Configuration Manager. Just find the section that discusses TCP/IP and Named Pipes and enable which ever you need to use.
2.If you are using a named instance of SQL Express (which is the default installation, so you probably are) and you want to be able to connect to the server without using a specific IP Port #, you will also need to start the SQL Browser Service. You will likely want to set your SQL Browser to Autostart as well if you plan to continue using SQL Express in this way.
3.If you are running a firewall, such as the Windows Firewall, you will need to create an Exception for the SQL Server instance that you want to connect to and also one for the SQL Browser if you are using the Browser as described in step 2.
A more detailed version of these instructions are available in the SQL Express Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlexpress. These instructions were written during the Beta, but they should still apply.
Hope this helps,
Mike
