Add Login NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE to SQL Server I installed a SQL Server 2014 Developer Edition on a VM, because the Express Edition is limited to just 10GB. Now I've tried to conncet to that server remotely from my VM with SSMS. But I get an error that I cannot connec:


  (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 28 - Server doesn't support
  requested protocol) (.Net SqlClient Data Provider)


On the Express Server there is an NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE login. So my conclusion was to add NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE to the logins, so I can access the server and databases with SSMS from a different PC, hoepfully.

I do find a NETWORK SERVICE user when searching for it. It then shows up as VM-THIS\NETWORK SERVICE. So no NT AUTHORITY.

When I try to add the VM-THIS\NETWORK SERVICE, on hitting OK, I get the following error:


  Windows NT user or group 'VM-THIS\NETWORK SERVICE' not found. Check
  the name again. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 15401)


Having a look at the error code couldn't help me solving this.

So on the one side I can find the user, but adding causes an error? What am I doing wrong?
The account will show up as just NETWORK SERVICE when you are looking at the local accounts via the UI (I recall). I'm not sure why you see one with the hostname but that would not be a system account on the local machine.

You can always just use T-SQL to add the login:

CREATE LOGIN [NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE] FROM WINDOWS;


Then assign it whatever permissions you would like.