Configuring a Fixed Port

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New: 5 December 2005

To enhance security, Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (SP2) turns on the Windows Firewall. When SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, Express Edition, or Evaluation Edition is running on Windows XP Professional and you want to connect to this instance from another computer, you must open a communication port in the firewall. The default instance of the Database Engine listens on port 1433; therefore, you do not have to configure a fixed port. However, named instances including SQL Server 2005 Express Edition listen on dynamic ports. Before you can open a port in the firewall, you must first configure the Database Engine to listen on a specific port; otherwise, the Database Engine might listen on a different port each time it is started.

Configure SQL Server to listen on a specific port

  1. In SQL Server Configuration Manager, expand SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration, and then click on the server instance you want to configure.

  2. In the right pane, double-click TCP/IP.

  3. In the TCP/IP Properties dialog box, click the IP Addresses tab.

  4. In the TCP Port box of the IPAll section, type an available port number. For this tutorial, we will use 1500.

  5. Click OK to close the dialog box, and click OK to the warning that the service must be restarted.

  6. In the left pane, click SQL Server 2005 Services.

  7. In the right pane, right-click the instance of SQL Server, and then click Restart. When the Database Engine restarts, it will listen on port 1500.

Next Task in Lesson

Opening Ports in the Firewall

Change History

Release History

5 December 2005
New content:
  • This is a new tutorial.