Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server

Reference: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqldataaccess/thread/c488cf76-2515-440f-b3f8-9cfad689c5b6

The error is reported by client library. While your server is listeing on remote TCP, client will still try TCP and NP connection in order. So the error client behavior is expected. From what you have described, I believe that even though you enabled the remote TCP connection on the XPSP2 machine, you didn't make the TCP listening port an exception of XPSP2 personal firewall. You should follow steps below to resolve this issue.



1. check the SQL Server Errorlog to make sure SQL Server is now listening on TCP/IP and confirm which port it is listening on. Usually 1433. In the Errorlog, you will see several lines that discuss what SQL Server is listening on. Below is an example:

2006-01-04 01:41:07.65 server SQL server listening on 10.254.1.150: 1433. <--Shows the IP Address and the port.

2006-01-04 01:41:07.65 server SQL server listening on 127.0.0.1: 1433. <--Shows another IP Address and the port.

2006-01-04 01:41:07.69 server SQL server listening on TCP, Shared Memory, Named Pipes.

2006-01-04 01:41:07.69 server SQL Server is ready for client connections

2, Make sure on Windows XP that the firewall is not blocking that port.

3, go to your client machine and run the client network configuration tool (cliconfg.exe) Make sure TCP/IP is enabled, click properties and make sure the port number is the same one as SQL Server is listening on. Here you can enable NP or disable client NP as well.

Once both the client and the server are using TCP/IP with the same port number and the firewall on server machines is not blocked, you should be able to connect.

country bar codes

00-13: USA & Canada	20-29: In-Store Functions	30-37: France
40-44: Germany	45: Japan (also 49)	46: Russian Federation
471: Taiwan	474: Estonia	475: Latvia
477: Lithuania	479: Sri Lanka	480: Philippines
482: Ukraine	484: Moldova	485: Armenia
486: Georgia	487: Kazakhstan	489: Hong Kong
49: Japan (JAN-13)	50: United Kingdom	520: Greece
528: Lebanon	529: Cyprus	531: Macedonia
535: Malta	539: Ireland	54: Belgium & Luxembourg
560: Portugal	569: Iceland	57: Denmark
590: Poland	594: Romania	599: Hungary
600 & 601: South Africa	609: Mauritius	611: Morocco
613: Algeria	619: Tunisia	622: Egypt
625: Jordan	626: Iran	64: Finland
690-692: China	70: Norway	729: Israel
73: Sweden	740: Guatemala	741: El Salvador
742: Honduras	743: Nicaragua	744: Costa Rica
746: Dominican Republic	750: Mexico	759: Venezuela
76: Switzerland	770: Colombia	773: Uruguay
775: Peru	777: Bolivia	779: Argentina
780: Chile	784: Paraguay	785: Peru
786: Ecuador	789: Brazil	80 - 83: Italy
84: Spain	850: Cuba	858: Slovakia
859: Czech Republic	860: Yugoslavia	869: Turkey
87: Netherlands	880: South Korea	885: Thailand
888: Singapore	890: India	893: Vietnam
899: Indonesia	90 & 91: Austria	93: Australia
94: New Zealand	955: Malaysia	977: International Standard Serial Number for Periodicals (ISSN)
978: International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN)	979: International Standard Music Number (ISMN)	980: Refund receipts
981 & 982: Common Currency Coupons	99: Coupons

Sharepoint: Hide "Open with Windows Explorer" option

To remove the “Open with Windows Explorer” option across the entire site:
- Create a custom .ascx file containing only the “ToolbarActionsMenu” Sharepoint rendering template.
- Remove the SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate ID=”OpenInExplorer” node.
- Save the file to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES and restart IIS, changes will be refreshed.

using Railo to run .cfm (coldfusion) files on IIS7 Windows Server 2003

Awesome blog post from http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/. All of the contents below are extracted from the original article here: http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/windows-2008-railo-iis-7

First, download Railo server. Go here http://www.getrailo.org/index.cfm/download and scroll down, then download the exe under Railo server.


Run the installer, I chose to install in C:\Railo to keep things really simple.

After it’s installed try http://localhost:8600/railo-context/admin/server.cfm on the server.
Don’t set anything up yet or add DSNs. I’m not sure if this is true but the admin is different for each site. At least I found that if I added a DSN under localhost it would not show up for the site. More on that later …

Open IIS and add a script mapping to your handler mappings.

Script: *.cfm
DLL: C:\Railo\win32\isapi_srun.dll
Name: CFviaRailo

Within handler mappings click on edit feature permissions from the right hand side and allow EXE. This is bad for the whole server so I recommend doing it on the sites individually.

If you are using Windows 2008 R2 x64 make sure the application pool for the site is set to allow 32bit apps and also set it to no managed code.

Open resin.conf in C:\Railo\conf. Find the line:

<!– configures a deployment directory for virtual hosts –>


Above that line put the following.
<!– configure IIS sites routing by host –>
<host id=”your-domain-name.com” root-directory=”.”>
<web-app id=”/” document-directory=”C:/inetpub/wwwroot/file-path”/>
</host>

Do the same for any other sites that will run Railo. Restart IIS (cmd –> iisreset) and the Railo server in services.

Now, in a web browser open the Railo admin under that site. Hopefully everything works for you. The URL would be “http://your-domain.com/railo-context/admin/server.cfm. You should be asked to set an admin password. After you do that and login add your datasources, setup the mail server, turn off debugging, and any other settings you like. With all that done your site should run as long as it doesn’t require something Railo doesn’t offer.

Like I said this is very basic and I did this for some relatively simple websites. I’m not sure if this is correct or recommended.Keep in mind that Resin is the web server, it is running the Railo sites and the CFML. IIS is simply passing the cfml to resin/railo. Just like normal CF/Java.

Some other links that helped me.

http://blog.durhamcons.com/post.cfm/railo-3-0-community-resin-3-1-and-iis6-learn-from-my-mistakes

http://www.railo.ch/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/24/h2Configuring-Railo-for-the-application-server–Part-1h2

Server running on 64-bit or 32-bit?

Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Method 1
1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2. Click the General tab. The operating system appears as follows:
• For a 64-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition appears under System.
• For a 32-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition appears under System.

Method 2
1. Click Start, click Run, type winmsd.exe, and then click OK.
2. In the details pane, locate Processor under Item. Note the value.
• If the value that corresponds to Processor starts with x86, the computer is running a 32-bit version of the Windows operating system.
• If the value that corresponds to Processor starts with EM64T or ia64, the computer is running a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system.

Note: - Intel Itanium-based computers can only run 64-bit versions of Windows. Intel Itanium-based computers cannot run a 32-bit Windows operating system. Currently, 64-bit versions of Windows only run on Itanium-based computers and AMD64-based computers.

quick way to check server physical or virtual machine

One of the fastest ways is to check by MAC addresses. If it starts with


00:0C:29 VMWare (auto)
00:50:56 VMWare (manual)
00:16:3e Xen

The VPS provider can change the MAC address ranges (in Xen at least) but most people usually don't bother. It's by no means a foolproof method though.
 
On Windows just open a command prompt window and type getmac.
The MAC address will be the column on the left (under Physical Address)
e.g.
C:\>getmac

Physical Address Transport Name
=================== ==============================
00-D0-xx-xx-xx-xx \Device\Tcpip_{GUID}

IE Browser crashes while running Webtrends or SmartView 8.x

source:

103553 - Internet Explorer crashes when viewing the Webtrends user interface and Java 1.6.0 Update 17 (or later) is installed

For products:
Webtrends Analytics 8.x
Webtrends On Demand

Last modified: 7/22/2010

Situation:
Internet Explorer crashes when viewing the Webtrends user interface on a machine with Java 1.6.0 Update 18 or later installed.

Solution:
In Java 1.6.0 Update 18 and later, a new plug-in process has been introduced which causes Internet Explorer browsers to crash.

This can be disabled by performing the following steps:
1. Open the java control panel.
2. Select the "Advanced" tab
3. Under the "Java Plug-in" section, uncheck "Enable the next-generation Java Plug-in"
4. Restart the browser.

Further information:

This issue can also be avoided by uninstalling any version of Java 1.6.0 Update 18 or later and using an earlier version in its place. 1.6_17 is the version of JRE webtrends currently recommends for version 8.0, 8.1x, 8.5x, and 8.7d.

ORA-12541: TNS no listener

Source: http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_ora_12541_tns_no_listener.htm

ORA-12541: TNS no listener


Cause: Listener for the source repository has not been started.

Action: Start the Listener on the machine where the source repository resides.

Basically the Forms server could not find the listener. First check the tnsnames.ora file and ensure that it points to the correct server and port. If the Forms server is on another machine, test the TNS resolve with tnsping from the command prompt. Finally, check the listener.

First, ensure that your listener service is running.
C:\Documents and Settings\ME>lsnrctl stat

This should show the status of the listener and the services it is listening for. Remember that when you run SQL*Plus on the database server, it does not need the listener to connect unless you specify the database tnsnames.ora entry.

Try to start the listener service using lsnrctl from DOS prompt.
set ORACLE_HOME= cd %ORACLE_HOME%/bin

lsnrctl start LISTENER

If the listener service is not running, re-start the listener service using the Windows task manager or use the DOS command line utility to re-start the Windows service with the "net start" command:

C:\Documents and Settings\ME>net start OracleOraDb10g_home1TNSListener

You can use the lsnrctl status command to verify that the listener is down, and lsnrctl start to start your listener. If you are on Windows, also verify that the listener service is running.

ASP LDAP authentication and retrieve details

strUser = "xxx"

strDN = "cn=" & sUser & ",ou=people,dc=company,dc=com"
strRoot = "LDAP://servername.com/dc=company,dc=com"
Dim objDS: Set objDS= GetObject("LDAP:")
Dim objAuth: Set objAuth = objDS.OpenDSObject(strRoot , strDN , "password", &H0200)
Dim objConn: Set objConn= CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
objConn.Provider = "ADSDSOObject"
objConn.Open "Ads Provider", strDN , "password"

Dim rs
Set rs = oConn.Execute("<" & sRoot & ">;(uid=" & strUser & ");cn,mail,telephoneNumber;subtree")
Response.write rs("cn").value
Response.write rs("mail").value
Response.write rs("telephoneNumber").value
rs.Close

objConn.Close
Set objConn = nothing
...

uncle zack by the beach - park royal penang

Last weekend we had some spare time and decided to check out Uncle Zack by-the-beach, a fairly new dining place in Park Royal hotel. Earlier we had came across a bunch of glowing reviews so... we'll get to that later.

The ambience is first rate if 1) you arrived early around 6-ish, and 2) you've never dined by the beach before. However, given the vast number of insect stings I accumulated, perhaps some insect repellent would be a nice addition :)

From food pics

Although I do not lay claim to being a foodie expert, I have had sufficient dining experience to be able to point out that the food is mediocre. Not too bad and not too good. Not feeling particularly adventurous, we started out with the gazpacho, continued with the tapas platter, and shared the 800g beef ribs.
I personally felt that the tapas platter was a mixmash of nasi kandar leftovers. But then again, to view it in a sliggggghtly more favorable light - it kinda reminded me of 1Malaysia spirit..

From food pics

The beef ribs came in a huge serving so sharing is advisable. I prefer my meat to be succulent and juicy - it fell a bit short of my expectations.

Now here is some humble opinion from yours truly: I could only make the deduction that being professional food blogs the floggers had the special TLC and attention from the good hotel folks...

- Serving was real slow although there were about maximum 8 tables occupied (maximum capacity is around 12-16 tables).
- By the time the food arrived at our table it was cold :( gazpacho excluded!
- The serving attendant was very attentive and friendly so I guess this is the silver lining..

Nuff said.

SQL 2000 change the owner of a table

For SQL 2000 change the owner on a table:


use DB

EXEC sp_changeobjectowner 'UserName.TableName', 'dbo'

migrating login and password from sql server 2000 to sql server 2005

for personal ref: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246133

Quick way to migrate DTS packages to SQL Server 2005

Migration is done using the SQL Server Package Migration Wizard.
This works to an extent - more complex packages will require some customizations and code changes.

Go to \Microsoft SQL Server\90\DTS\Binn to locate DTSMigrationWizard.exe. Alternatively, expand the DB server in Management Studio, expand management and then legacy in Object Explorer. Right click on DTS and select the wizard.
Choose source/destination server, and DTS packages. Then click Finish and wait for the wizard to import.

So now the packages are migrated, how do you know whether it works?

In SQL Server Management Studio, connect to Integration Services. (File->Connect Object Explorer).
Expand Stored Packages of the server instance. The migrated packages should be under MSDB.
Start performing test runs and pray for no errors to occur!

There's a great article that shows more details, here.

Part 2:
After successfully importing the DTS packages, we still need to set up the jobs. Script the jobs from SS2000 and just run the queries to create jobs in SS2005 master database.

Some stuff to take note:
Create a new database maintenance plan and let SSIS and SS2005 take care of the rest, as opposed to migrating the job and DTS over from SS2000 and spend time troubleshooting.

If the migrated job failed with an error like this:
Message

Executed as user: XXXXX\SYSTEM. Description: One or more component failed validation. End Error Error: 2010-08-04 01:00:43.37 Code: 0xC0024107 Source: DTSTask_DTSDataPumpTask_1 Description: There were errors during task validation. End Error DTExec: The package execution returned DTSER_FAILURE (1). Started: 1:00:00 AM Finished: 1:00:43 AM Elapsed: 42.75 seconds. The package execution failed. The step failed.
Try changing the DTS package's protection level as stated here.
For my case I just re-import the package from my local File System and used "Rely on Server Storage and Roles..."

EOS.

unicode escape formats

For my personal reference only. The original article can be found here.


The following are ASCII representations of Unicode characters known to be used in
various contexts. In a few cases we also include unusual representations of integers
since integers are sometimes converted to characters.

Description	Example	Usage
raw hex	00E9	Unicode Consortium file NamesList.txt
prefix 0x hex	0x00E9	Yudit keymap source files
prefix v decimal	v233	Perl
prefix $ hex	$00E9	Alex Eulenberg Mac OS X keyboard map source files
prefix # with suffix # hex	#00E9#	Mimer SQL
prefix #$ hex	#$00E9	some Pascals including Delphi
prefix 16# hex	16#00E9	Postscript
prefix #x hex	#x00E9	some Common Lisp implementations
prefix #16r hex	#16r00E9	Common Lisp integer
prefix backslash hex [4]	\00E9	Oracle in unistr function
prefix backslash-u decimal	\u0233	Rich Text Format
prefix backslash-u hex [4]	\u00E9	Java, Ruby
prefix backslash-u left brace hex [variable] right brace	\u{E9}, \u{000E9}, multiple codepoints: \u{E9 74 E9}	Ruby
prefix backslash-U hex [8] outside BMP, prefix backslash-u hex [4] within BMP	\u00E9	C#, D, Python, Scheme, Tcl
prefix U hex	U00E9
prefix u hex	u00E9
prefix u HEX [5-6]	u100E9	Fontlab Studio outside BMP
prefix %u hex	%u00E9
prefix U+ hex	U+00E9	Unicode Consortium documents
prefix uni HEX [4]	uni00E9	Fontlab Studio within BMP
prefix X with hex in single quotes	X'00E9'	some IBM documentation
prefix X with hex in double quotes with optional type postfix character c[har], d[char], w[char]	X"00E9"d	D
prefix 16# and suffix # hex	16#00E9#	Ada
prefix U in angle brackets hex	<U00E9>	POSIX locale specifications
prefix backslash-x hex	\x00E9	C wide string, Tcl integer
prefix backslash-x hex in braces	\x{00E9}	Perl
prefix backslash {U+ hex with suffix }	\{U+E9}	BitC
prefix &# with suffix ; decimal	&#0233;	HTML, XML, XHTML
prefix &#x hex with suffix ;	&#x00E9;	HTML, XML, XHTML
prefix &# decimal	&#0233	SGML, HTML (deprecated)
prefix &#x hex	&#x00E9	SGML, HTML (deprecated)
prefix backslash-# decimal	\#0233;	SGML
prefix backslash-#x hex	\#x00E9;	SGML
prefix _x and suffix _ hex	_x00E9_	OOXML, SQL/XML
3 low bytes each with backslash prefix in big-endian order octal	\000\000\351
3 low bytes each with backslash-x prefix in big-endian order hex	\x00\x00\xE9
3 low bytes each with backslash-d prefix in big-endian order decimal	\d000\d000\d233	POSIX locale specifications
prefix " hex[4] (UTF16 - use surrogate pairs beyond BMP)	"00E9	XeTeX
hex UTF-8 with each byte's hex preceded by an =-sign	=C3=A9	RFC 2045 Quoted Printable
hex UTF-8 with each byte's hex preceded by a %-sign	%C3%A9	RFC 2396 URI escape format
hex UTF-8 with each byte's hex preceded by a backslash-x	\xC3\xA9	Apache log format
hex UTF-8 with each byte's hex surrounded by angle brackets	<C3><A9>	print format for uninterpreted bytes used by various programs
octal UTF-8 with backslash prefixes	\303\251	print format for uninterpreted bytes used by various programs

sharepoint 2007 - group list by week

Was googling for sharepoint formulas on retrieving a week number based on date when this came up 2nd on top.
http://sharepoint-guru.blogspot.com/2008/03/group-list-by-week-number.html

Nifty, short and sweet.
INT(([Column name]-DATE(YEAR([Start Time]),1,1))/7)

neverendingshowingoffness

neverendingshowingoffness ANNOYS the hell out of me.

random

hey twitter, long time no see. I don't know how I managed to refrain from logging into you for 1 month. ZOMG!!!

My PC is so full of shit right now with numerous assemblies, PIAs, .net frameworks and all. All that just for some minor piece of Office automation. If it crashes someday it will be bill gate's fault for making me install all that shit.

imma kill the server

processing...
processing...

log file size: average ~120MB each
lines per MB: ~4000
number of log files: ~20
lines to process: 120 * 4000 * 20 = ~9600000
time: infinite...

chrome

gotta love chrome. still standing strong at 8 windows, 70 tabs

competition

MUST you turn everything into a competition?

!@$#!

damn you all, bloody whiners! don't you have anything better to do than complain, complain, complain!

seriously...

i do not know why
i put up with your
kind of shit everyday.

it's 4:39
my boss is in the cube
talking, talking; i can't leave.

liar

how does it feel to get caught in the middle of a big fat lie? you know who you are.

depressed

rainy day. I don't feel like going home :(

cameron highlands I

Just back from a trip to Cameron Highlands... back to the hot tropics~! yikes.

random ramblings

PROCRASTINATION is the root of all things inefficient
(and we all want to be efficient people...)

gila shopping lately

The past few weeks it seems I am on shopping-non-stop mode. Shopping during lunch is extremely therapeutic - nothing beats the frenzied rush and that feeling of satisfaction after my war chest is loaded! AHHHH....

learning something new every day

I learn something new via the WWW every day.

This morning via my Twitter account, I happened to view a post by Mashable on how the mayor Cory Booker responded to a tweet and helped shovel some dude's walkway. So in turn I looked at the requestor's Twitter profile, who also happens to be a radio show host. One of her tweets caught my eye. Apparently she has been tweeting in Gullah and only 1 user noticed; the rest thought her grammar was bad. ZOMG...

So obviously I had to go and Google it up and find out the meaning of Gullah. You can read the rest here.
It's hard not to love the web! =)

:(

How valuable is life?
I was suddenly struck by this question when I opened an email forwarded to me. The title was plain and did not give away the graphic contents of the attached video.
In the short clip, a Vietnamese in a police uniform was shown. His arms were flailing about and he kept glancing down in disbelief; if the movie is real, then I was viewing at a person who had just been run over by a heavy vehicle. His lower torso, detached from his body, was a few inches away and flattened.
What made me sad was the way bystanders were treating him like a freak or some circus animal as they stood nearby chattering. One even ventured forward and flicked at the man's hands as if to prove this man is still alive! wtf...
How fucked up we all are inside, to view a clip of a man in deep pain in the light of entertainment? Something is just not right :(

To pray that the man would be a survivor would smack of hypocrisy. After all, I, too, was guilty of having stolen a few moments of entertainment.
God help us all..

2010: will it be a better year?

So we bid adieu to 2009 and may I say good riddance, as 2009 is largely a period of turbulence and instability.
2010 starts with a price hike in sugar and bread - doesn't look too good. I can only pray that 2010 will be a better year.
Goodbye 2009, hello 2010!