When attempting to open the Spotlight on Messaging console from a remote location (e.g Users Laptop) user receives an error message:
"Failed to connect to Diagnostic Services connection because:
An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.
When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the
fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote
connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error
Locating Server/Instance Specified)"
If you are running SQL Server 2005 by using an instance name and you are not using a specific TCP/IP port number in your connection string, you must enable the SQL Server Browser service to allow for remote connections. For example, SQL Server 2005 Express is installed with a default instance name of ComputerName\SQLEXPRESS. You are only required to enable the SQL Server Browser service one time, regardless of how many instances of SQL Server 2005 you are running.
To enable the SQL Server Browser service, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
2. On the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration page, click Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.
3. On the Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections page, click SQL Server Browser, click Automatic for Startup type, and then click Apply.
Note. When you click the Automatic option, the SQL Server Browser service starts automatically every time that you start Microsoft Windows.
4. Click Start, and then click OK.
Full details of SQL configuration can be found in the following article - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914277
