Having trouble accessing a recently installed instance of MSDE? Make sure the MSSQLSERVER service is started!

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I just spent ages trying to work out why I couldn’t access the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) instance that an application had just installed… it may sound obvious, but make sure the MSSQLSERVER service is started!

In my defence, if an application requires a server or service restart after installation, I expect it to tell me that’s what it needs, but the version of MSDE 2000 SP3A downloaded by Altiris Notification Server 6.0 didn’t seem to do that. I had similar problems a few weeks back whilst playing around with Community Server. On both occasions, I though it might be a problem with my security credentials so I downloaded the SQL Server Web Data Administrator but that couldn’t access the database either. It was only once I’d checked that all the MSDE services were running (MSSQLSERVER was not) that everything jumped into life.

Another tip whilst I’m on the subject – MSDE 2000 SP3A requires a strong password to be set for the sa user. If using a repackaged version of MSDE (as I was), try extracting the package and examining the setup files to find the SA password that has been set as part of the application installation (e.g. using the SAPWD= option for setup.exe).

Great mobile handset – shame about the connectivity software

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Notwithstanding the fact that last month I wrote about how I’d finally found a use for a camera phone, my preferred feature list for a mobile handset is quite simple:

Other features I might use are a loudspeaker (handsfree) mode and GPRS; but whilst camera, FM radio, and even MP3 player are nice to haves, they are by no means essential. As for smartphones, I have a Nokia 6600 but I’ve barely scratched the surface on its capabilities (mostly because I’m scared of running up huge bandwidth usage costs on my personal account).

For a long time now, the standard handset given out to most corporate users in the UK has been the Nokia 6310i. For a while it was the Nokia 6810, but my new work phone is a Nokia 6021 and I love it!

Nokia 6021

Meeting all of my ‘A list’ criteria above, the 6021 is the perfect phone for me but I had some fun and games trying to get it to synchronise my contact details with Microsoft Outlook. Once I worked out how to turn on the Bluetooth functionality within my Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S7010D, I could get the phone to communicate with the PC via Bluetooth, but although the Nokia PC Suite (v6.5.12) seemed to detect the phone, I couldn’t get the Nokia PC Sync utility to recognise the Bluetooth connection.

After spending ages creating and breaking down Bluetooth pairings between the phone and my laptop, I finally gave up, remembering that I had the same issue with my 6310i too and that IrDA seemed to work every time. Sure enough, an IrDA connection did the trick but the whole point about a Bluetooth-enabled phone is that I can synchronise my phone and my laptop without having to activate IrDA and set up a line of sight connection.

Come on Nokia – you’ve produced a great phone – now how about some decent connectivity software to go with it…