I recently set up SQL Server Express 2012 on my network machine and now I’m having trouble connecting to it from another computer running Visual Studio 2012. Every time I try to connect, I keep getting this frustrating error message:
A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. The target machine actively refused the connection.
Here’s what I’ve already tried to solve this problem:
- Opened SQL Server Configuration Manager and turned on the SQL Server Browser service
- Created firewall rules to allow TCP traffic on ports 1433 and 1434 for my local network
- Double-checked that my Windows user account has proper login permissions on the database server
- Confirmed that Windows Authentication is set up correctly on the SQL instance
- Restarted the SQL Server service multiple times and even rebooted the entire machine
- Spent way too much time troubleshooting this issue
What steps am I missing to get SQL Server 2012 Express working with remote database connections?
The issue you are experiencing is likely related to SQL Server Express not being configured to accept remote connections by default. Navigate to SQL Server Configuration Manager and expand SQL Server Network Configuration, then select Protocols for your instance name. Ensure that TCP/IP protocol is enabled - this is frequently disabled on Express installations. Right-click TCP/IP and select Properties, then go to the IP Addresses tab. Find the IPAll section at the bottom and verify that TCP Port is set to 1433. Also check that your SQL Server service is running under an account that has network access permissions rather than a local service account. After making these changes, restart the SQL Server service completely. I encountered this exact scenario when setting up a development environment and these protocol settings were the missing piece.
hmm interesting - are you connecting using the server name or IP address? sometimes express instances need the full server\instance name format like YOURPC\SQLEXPRESS. also curious what connection string you’re using in visual studio? the default instance naming can be tricky with express versions.
check if named pipes is enabled too in configuration manager - sometimes express needs both tcp/ip and named pipes running. also make sure the sql server browser service is set to automatic startup not just enabled. had similar headache last month and it was the browser service not starting properly on boot that caused the connection refused errors.