Hi Bill,

I've got WinXP SP2, and SQL Server 2000 on my box at home, and this connection string works for me:

Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=< database_name>User ID=< user_name>;Password=< password>"

HTH,
Phil


>Hi Craig,
>
>Pretty sure I tried most of the obvious forms, "localhost", "(localhost)", "(local)", etc. but will give it another shot.
>
>Bill
>
>>Have you tried "(local)"
>>
>>
>>>When developing on my Win2K machine at work, I can use the "(localhost)" identifier in the SQL Server connection string in Web.config for connecting which works well and is handy for all local development.
>>>
>>>However, this does not work on my Win XP Pro machine at home. It seems to require the actual machine name for connecting. Is this correct or is there a "localhost" designator that works on Win XP?
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>Bill