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Kieran H. sends us this tip regarding a way to test the ability of the client machine to connect to the server. We have not tested this yet - but thought we would pass on the advice.

One hint to check the connectivity is create a text file on a client machine, rename the .txt to .udl and when you double click this you have an ADO connection (presuming at least Mdac 2.7 is on the machine, early version while allowing ADO connections can struggle with later version of SQL). On the first tab select OLE DB Provider of SQL Server, on next tab select Server name (might have to type it in, doesn't always fill list will all SQL Server names though refreshing list twice sometimes kicks it into action), select security and if SQL auth. enter username and password and then Test to connect (don't have to select a database)

Dan P. also sends us this additional information on using .udl files to test connectivity.

On the client machine, create a text file called Remote.udl. Create it and save it (it will be empty). Then double click the file. It will open in a dialog called Data Link Properties. If the client machine doesn't already have the SQL Native Client OLE DB provider, it can be downloaded free at the following Microsoft site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d09c1d60-a13c-4479-9b91-9e8b9d835cdc&displaylang=en

Once this software is installed, select SQL Native Client from the first tab of the Data Link Properties window. On the second page, enter information for the server. Remember to state the Data Source name in the following fashion: 123.123.123.123\SQLEXPRESS. Use the Test Connection button to see if the plumbing is correct.