Thanks for all the good info. The SQL server Unleashed looks good, I just wish it went beyond 2014. I do see the High Availability for 2016. I don't know...
From my laptop I can ping the server by ip or by hostname. Running SS Cofnig Mgr on server I could see that Named Pipes and TCP/IP Protocols were disabled...
I went to the Microsoft store and paid for and downloaded the sql server 2014 developer edition. Install seemed to go fine on my Windows 8.1 - in c:\windows\Program...