Have the Wrox United happily working with VWD. However I want to get this running with IIS - one reason is that I want to host future databse applications from an IIS. I have two XP Pro units with IIS & I keep getting the same error when trying to run the default.aspx, despite following the instructions from p660 - it is my understanding you do not need SQL Server Express installed to get this application working. ( I have seen many archived blog but none with a specific answer)
The error I keep getting is
An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

Is there something easy I can change in the connection string. One blog suggested deleting the user instance = true, have done this but to no avail.

Any suggestions would be very welcome

The problem isn't necessarily with the connection string. As the error message suggests, the default configuration for SQL Server 2005 is to not accept incoming connections over a network. So you need to go to "Microsoft SQL Server 2005" -> "Configuration Tools" -> "SQL Server Configuration Manager". Then drill down into "SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration" -> "Protocols for x", where x is your SQL server instance name. On the right you'll see the available protocols and their status. Enable TCP/IP and you should then be able to connect to it from another machine.

-Peter
peterlanoie.blog