title: Connect to SQL Server 2012 Database with C# (Visual Studio 2012)
body: <p>Evening all,</p>
  
  <p>I'm trying to connect to a SQL Server 2012 database from C#. My connection settings when using SQL Server Management Studio are as below:-</p>
  
  <pre><code>Server Type:    Database Engine
  Server Name:    Paul-PC\SQLEXPRESS
  Authentication: Windows Authentication
  Username:   Greyed out
  Password:   Greyed out 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The name of the database I'm trying to connect to is "testDB".</p>
  
  <p>Here's my code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.ComponentModel;
  using System.Data;
  using System.Drawing;
  using System.Linq;
  using System.Text;
  using System.Threading.Tasks;
  using System.Windows.Forms;
  using System.Data.SqlClient;
  
  namespace DatabaseConnection
  {
      public partial class Form1 : Form
      {
          public Form1()
          {
              InitializeComponent();
          }
  
          private void btnConnect_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
          {
              SqlConnection myConnection = new SqlConnection("server=localhost;" +
                                         "Trusted_Connection=yes;" +
                                         "database=testDB; " +
                                         "connection timeout=30");
              try
              {
                  myConnection.Open();
                  MessageBox.Show("Well done!");
              }
              catch(SqlException ex)
              {
                 MessageBox.Show("You failed!" + ex.Message);
              }
  
          }
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Unfortunately, my code fails to connect with the following error:-</p>
  
  <p>"You failed!A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections."</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions? SQL Server is running locally.</p>