Cannot Login To Default SQL Server Instance

Question

I brought my laptop home from work hoping I could get some tasks done over the weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn't login to SQL Server using Windows Authentication . I've checked the SQL Server Configuration Manager and the instance ( MSSQLSERVER ) is set to Log On As Local System , which supposedly means that I should be able to login fine using Windows Authentication... or am I missing something here? Note that in the login window, I tried a lot of different combinations and it always keeps telling me that connection failed because the server is not accessible or I'm not authorized to access it.

A little background about how the instance was installed: I installed and configured it myself. I chose the Mixed Authentication mode and gave a password to the default sa user (which isn't working either by the way). The thing I suspect could be the problem is the fact that I installed the SQL SERVER instance when I was logged in as my Domain User at work ( DOMAIN\\UserName ). Now I'm at home and I do not have access to the LAN at the office, so I'm logged in as the {COMPUTERNAME}\\Kassem user.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

A windows account has to be added to SQL Server to have any rights. If you didn't add {COMPUTERNAME}\\Kassem , you can't login to SQL Server.

The recovery option here is the SA password, which should always work.

To connect to the default instance, connect to localhost or . . Connecting to .\\MSSQLSERVER won't work, even though MSSQLSERVER is the default instance name.