I created a private wireless network (no internet connection) of four workstations, each running an installation of SQL 2008 Express. All four laptops are running Windows 7 Professional. I created a HomeGroup for this private network. While I don't care about file sharing between the four workstations, I do need three of them to be able to connect to the SQL 2008 Express database on the fourth laptop via connection strings in classic ASP programs. Each of the four laptops can see the others in the network. I can ping the ip addresses from each to the other with no problems. When I try running the ASP program on the three laptops that attempt to connect to the SQL database on the fourth, I get the Server does not exist or access denied error '80004005'. The same program can also run on the fourth laptop and connects to the SQL database with no problems. I've tried using SQLOLEDB and SQLNCLI10 as the provider in the connection string on the other three. That fails. I've tried adding the IP Address of the laptop where the SQL Database resides as the Data Source in the connection string on the other three and that still fails. TCP/IP and Named Pipes are enabled. Each laptop can connect to the instance of SQLEXPRESS running on each, but I need the three to be able to connect to the instance of SQL Express running on the fourth. Any ideas what I may be doing wrong? This connection string works fine in the ASP program to connect to the local database on each laptop:
Connection.Open "PROVIDER=SQLOLEDB;Server=ComputerName\Sqlexpress;UID=MyUser;PWD=MyUserPassword;DATABASE=MyDatabase"
Nothing seems to work for the Connection String that the other three laptops need to use to connect to this database on the fourth laptop.