Unable to browse SQL Servers from SSMS 2005

  • In SS Management Studio 2005, I used to be able to see all of the SQL Servers on my network by clicking on Connect, Database Engine. Then in the Server name dropdown, I would select Browse For More and click on the Network Servers tab. After a slight pause, I would get a list of all the SQL Servers on my network. Now I am only seeing SQL Server instances local to my machine. Does anyone know what would cause this? I asked our network guys and they claim they have not made any changes to the way the network is configured. I get the same results when I use OSQL -L. I no longer see all of the servers. Is this a DNS issue? Anyone that can shed some light on how this browse works? Thanks.

  • The browse list (and -L), send out queries to the SQL Browser service on (I believe) UDP 1434. If you have a firewall on your machine, this might have been blocked (or a group policy change). Many networks block this at routers since this was what SQL Slammer used.

    I'd lean towards something blocking on your machine first.

  • There is a setting in the configuration Manager by which you can hide an instance, see if this has been configured.

    IF not I know this may sound very obvious but try to check if the SQL service is running on that server\system.

    Try to ping the server and see if this works? --> this will clearly suggest that whether it is a Network problem or not.

    Check if the SQL Server current setting allows remote connection.

    Regards,
    Sarabpreet Singh 😎
    Sarabpreet.com
    SQLChamp.com
    Twitter: @Sarab_SQLGeek

  • Remote into another sql box with SSMS and verify that you can see the network servers from another machine.

    If you can... that means you machine is 'blocking' something.

    my 2 cents

    ~Leon

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