Connecting to SQL Server over the LAN

Hello,

I have SQL Server installed on a machine named SQLHOST with an IP address 192.168.1.4, and SQL server is installed with an instance named 'CLIENTDB'. Now on another machine, I have a client software written using .NET which connects using the following string:

Server=SQLHOST\CLIENTDB;Initial Catalog=clients;User ID=clientdb;Password=xyz;Trusted_connection=false; Persist Security Info=false;Pooling=false;

This works fine. But when I replace "SQLHOST" with "192.168.1.4" it does not connect. Why is this? Is there no way one can connect with an IP Address? As this is going to be deployed across the LAN, I would rather rely on the IP address than the computer name... Does this make sense?

Looking forward to your reply,

Thanks in advance,
Jimnetworking is not really my thing but I am wondering if you are using DHCP or static IP addresses. Can you ping that IP address from your machine? And excuse my networking ignorance but some times machines have an internal IP address and an external one.|||Hi,

Since you do not use the default instance, you should set the server to
"10.176.4.124\sql2005"

I could connect with this configuration to a server with IP 10.176.4.124 and instance name sql2005

Are you using "192.168.1.4\CLIENTDB" instead of "SQLHOST\CLIENTDB" ?

Eralper
http://www.kodyaz.com