Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

I.4.2. Creating and Maintaining Configurations

You can put SQL Server to work right away, although you'll probably want to make several customizations and tweaks after you've completed your installation. In this section, we show you how easy it is to make changes. To begin, we show you how to employ the various communication protocols available to SQL Server. A brief exploration of configuring Reporting Services follows. After that, we provide some ideas on how to add or remove other features.

I.4.2.1. SQL Server communication protocols

Your database server is a social animal: It will happily chat with other users and computers, but only if you let it. For this part of the chapter, we show you how to enable and configure the various protocols that can make these conversations possible.

First, it's a good idea to understand what purpose a communication protocol serves. These standards make it possible for disparate database servers and clients to speak and understand each other. Multitudes of protocols are out there; here are the ones that work with SQL Server 2008:

• TCP/IP: This is, by far, the most popular communication protocol. In fact, it's the foundation of the Internet. Whenever you open a browser and connect to a Web site, TCP/IP is the underlying standard that makes it possible, and is probably the best choice for your database communication protocol.

• Named pipes: Generally used for both intra-machine and client/server communication, this protocol is less frequently found ...