I just brought up a new Windows 2008 server and installed SQL Server 2005 (I know… should have loaded 2008).

After my new SQL Server was up and running… I tried to connect remotely to the SQL Server.

Error…

Oh yeah… I remember… The good ole’ Surface Area Configuration tool.

Applied my change, and restarted SQL.

Remote connections still would not connect.

Hum… Ah… Must be Firewall…

In case you have not seen the Windows 2008 Firewall settings… it’s kinda intimidating

I found this DOS command to run on the server that corrected my connection issue. I hope it saves you some time if you encounter this in the future…

netsh firewall set portopening TCP 1433 "SQLServer"

That fixed me right up.

(I found the answer on ServerFault.com)