>Thanx, I can easily modify the connect string to use the designated port.
>
>Most of my clients will be using Win98 and 2000. Do these OS's have the dbmssocn.dll installed or will I have to install the SQL Server Client Utility at the client sites?

All users will have to have the connection library or at least the DLLs you need (most likely only Named Pipes and TCPIP). The ODBC driver uses these to connect.

>
>Who determines which port I can use? Will the network people assign me a port or do I select a port? I saw in the KB aritcle that I can use NETSTAT to find out what ports the server is listening on.

When the SS Administrator sets up the server, he/she can configure what port the server will be listening to. This is done either through manipulating the registry directly or the Server Network Utility. You can use any port you want; however, certain ports are published as being for certain things, ex.

Port   80 - HTTP
Port  443 - HTTPS
Port   21 - FTP
Port   23 - Telnet
Port   25 - SMTP
Port 1433 - SQL Server (which is what the article was referring to as the IANA)

If the adminsitrator picks one of these, it may conflict with another process that is already listening on that port. Once the administrator picks a port, you can connect using that port.

I don't think you will be able to use NETSTAT because you first have to make a connection to SQL Server and you can't really do that until you know the new port. < s >

HTH.