Named Pipes and YOU!

Don't laugh, but we still use LEI 3.2 where I work. The other day, I started getting errors like the following:

Error: ErrorRecord: HResult: 0x80004005 Description: [DBNMPNTW]Connection broken. SQLErrorInfo: 08S01 Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server , Connector 'Yadda Yadda', Method -Connect- (12325)

DBNMPNTW is the name of the dll used to connect to SQL Server using Named Pipes. By default, Named Pipes are usually not enabled for SQL 2005. LEI should have been using TCP/IP like a good little client. But, I can't blame LEI for this one. LEI's installed on a Win2K server (stop laughing). So, I opened the Client Configuration tool (cliconfg.exe) on the server to set the "default protocol" to TCP/IP. Unfortunately, I wasn't a local admin on the box so I kept getting the following annoying error:

The default network protocol that has been specified is not one of the default protocols. Please make sure it is installed correctly.

What it should have said is:

You're not a local admin, so you can't use this tool. If you do anything on this screen, it will be silently erased causing you to pull out your hair.

So, I had someone with the appropriate rights log into the server and run cliconfg.exe and set the "default protocol" to TCP/IP.

The DBNMPNTW error is now gone, and everything's working normally.