Solution: Error: 26 – Error Locating Server/Instance Specified

Introduction

This is a very common problem that we face while working with SQL (be it any version of SQL) and we always spend some time to figure out the exact issue. Every time, we need to look into where we should start looking for the problem. This post lists the basic issues that can cause this error and I will keep this post updated in case any more reasons are found.

Below are the most common issues due to which we get this error:

• Check the Server name – First and the most common thing to check is to ensure there are no typo errors for the server name.
• Accessibility to Server – The server should also be accessible from the network computer, we are trying to access SQL Server.
• Check the Instance name – Once the server is checked for correctness, the next thing to check is the SQL Server instance name. Check for typo errors in the Instance name and also ensure that the Instance exists on the server
• Remote Connections enabled on SQL Server – Ensure SQL Server is allowed for remote connections
• Mixed Mode Authentication Enabled – Ensure Mixed-mode authentication is enabled on SQL Server you are trying to connect to
• SQL Browser Service should be running – On the server, SQL browser service should be running. You can check this from Services window on the server.
• Firewall is configured on server to allow sqlbrowser.exe and port 1434 under exception.

After following all the above steps, the error should be resolved.

[Original Source]

Hope you like this post. You can get connected with me on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn also. In case you know any other way of resolving the feature, let me know via comments.