I’ve been playing with SQL Server 2005 a bit more lately.  It took me a little bit, but I finally got remote connections to work — thanks to Josh who I bugged with repeated “Try it now” requests….  heh.  For some reason the SQL Server Browser service wasn’t handling requests properly or something…  In the end, the only way I was able to get connections in was to have the connection made to the specific port number.  Only a minor inconvenience, I guess, but I really wish they’d make it less of a pain to do that stuff right out of the box.   Then again, maybe that’s a good thing… from the security side of things.  By default, SQL Server 2005 isn’t even set up to allow remote connections or use TCP/IP… Great for local development, though, I guess.

I’m still trying to get a hang on the new interface with 2005, though.  I had grown so accustomed to using Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer separately.  It still seems really foreign to me right now — doing it all from one interface.  I wasn’t a huge fan on Enterprise Manager to begin with, but now the tools just seem so much more bloated.  I’m going to try and get a copy running at work so we can start porting over some small stuff…  Maybe my opinion of it will change after that.  We’ll see.

I was planning on writing up some SQL posts, but I couldn’t decide on a topic.  Anyone have any suggestions?