Download the MSSQL 2005 installation from http://www.microsoft.com

1: Run the install file on the box which you'll use as your server.

     a) make sure you use 'mixed' authentication instead of windows authentication or SQL authentication. ContactWise can't connect using windows authentication.

     b) We suggest using the default 'sa' login to prevent any confusion. This will be the login you type in the username/password fields in the database connection window in contactwise. You can create other users for your clients to connect to the database, but we strongly advise not changing the administrator login.

2: Go to: Start menu > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager

     a) make sure both services are running: server browser, SQL Server (surface area name here)

     b) under protocols for your surface area make sure shared memory, named pipes, and tcp/ip are all enabled

     c)  even though it's a windows application, the windows firewall will still stop connections from hitting your server. Make sure the firewall allows the SQL server to see outside connections. Since most servers are on closed networks, it's easiest just to shut the firewall off.

Tips:

When you connect with ContactWise to your MSSQL server, you'll need to include your surface area name in the connection string. For example, if your service is SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) and the host name is server1, the connection string would be: server1\sqlexpress . Not including the surface area name will throw a connection error claiming that your server couldn't be found.

After you create the ContactWise database, don't change the database owner from dbo. ContactWise is hardcoded to use dbo, so changing the owner will completely bust it.