If you have recently installed SQL Server 2005/2008, for security purposes, external and remote access is not enabled by default. If you try to connect to a SQL Server database from an external machine you may see one of the following errors. ISSUES/ERRORS · SQL server does not allow remote connections · SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified · An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005/2008,this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections.(provider:Named Pipes Provider,error:40-Could not open connection to SQL Server)) · Server does not exist or access denied · A...