title: Unable to connect to remote SQL Server 2008 R2 Express
body: <p>I'm so frustrated I'm going to give all of my rep points if someone can help me with this.</p>
  <p>Scenario:</p>
  <p>There was a domain name change and the development server had a SQL Server Express working. Since I have forgotten the SA password and was not able to login with any account from the new domain I decided to uninstall and re-install a new SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.</p>
  <p>I installed SQL Server Express from WPI with management studio. After the installation I can open the local server with Management Studio, but cannot open from a remote Management studio.</p>
  <p>What I did to try to figure out WTH is going on:</p>
  <ol>
  <li><p>I made sure Remote connection was checked on the SQL Options &quot;Connections&quot;</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>I enable TCP/IP and Named Pipe on SQL Server Configuration for my instance <code>SQLEXPRESS</code></p>
  </li>
  <li><p>I ensure that the port was OK on Properties of TCP/IP of the SQL Server Configuration, there were no value at first, so I manual entered 1433, stop, start the server, try to connect.</p>
  <p>a) I even try playing with the Active / Enable value, and with a stop, start, re-try in between every any changes.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Disable the Windows Server 2008 firewall, even added a manual rules for 1433.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Make sure the instance name was good on <code>hkey_local..\software\ms\sql\...</code> and the one I see on the local Management Studio, it's <code>SQLEXPRESS</code></p>
  </li>
  <li><p>I can ping the server with its name or ip address, I even tried to connect with the IP address as well.</p>
  </li>
  </ol>
  <p>I'm just trying to connect from another server with another Management Studio, and here is the error I get:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Cannot connect to DEVSERVER\SQLEXPRESS.</p>
  <p>ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:<br />
  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. (provider: SQL
  Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance
  Specified) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: -1)</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>The server is a Windows Server 2008 x64</p>
  <p>What a time waster</p>
  <p>TIA for any tips, can't believe what's happening.</p>
  <p>UPDATE:</p>
  <p>I telnet from the remote server on port 80 just to make sure it's not a network problem, and I got HTML result, since firewall is disabled, and tcp/ip is enabled, SQL Browser started, Remote connection is activated it's hard to put the finger on what's not OK.</p>