title: SharePoint Central Administration throwing a network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server
body: <p>I was trying to configure FBA for SharePoint 2010. After creating providers and .net roles in IIS, I get an error when I clicked on .net users which prompted me to delete the connection, providers I created in the sharepoint central administration v4 as I could not resolve it. Now when I try to access manage web applications or site collections in central administration page, I get the response below.</p>
  
  <pre><code>A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a 
  connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. 
  Verify that the instance name is correct and that the sql server is 
  configured to allow remote connection (provider: sql network interfaces 
  error: 26 - error locating server/instance specified)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What could be causing this and how can I fix it?</p>