SQL Server 2008 connectionString question

Question

I'm trying to connect to my SQL Server 2008 database with ASP.NET MVC 3. Here is my connection string:

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="AppConnectionString"
         connectionString="Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=DatabaseName;User Id=UserName;Password=PassWord;"
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>

Any idea of what's wrong?

When I try to query something in my DbContext I get this exception:

• $exception {"The provider did not return a ProviderManifestToken string."} System.Exception {System.Data.ProviderIncompatibleException}

• InnerException {"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)"} System.Exception {System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException}

Could someone help me please?

Thanks

Answer 1

First check if your mssqlserver services are running fine. Just run net start mssqlserver in your command prompt.

Then try changing the connection string Data Source=(local) to Data Source=.

All the above is assuming that you have sql server installed in your local machine.

Answer 2

That error means that either the name of your Data Source in your connectionstring is wrong or that your sql server is not configured to allow remote connections : see here how to fix it.