title: Cannot connect to SQL Server instance from web application but can from SSMS
body: <p>I've got SQL Sever 2008 R2 Express installed and am able to connect to it with SSMS using (local) and Windows Authentication.</p>
  
  <p>However, when attempt to connect to it from an MVC Web Application running in Visual Studio 2012, I'm getting a network related exception when I try to open a connection to it.</p>
  
  <p>This is my connection string:</p>
  
  <pre><code>connectionString="Server=.\SQLEXPRESS;Database=DavisFamily;UserID=adminuser;Password=******;"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know this is set up correctly in other environments because other people have the app working just fine.  I need my machine to be able to take this connection string and work with it.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>So I just opened up Sql Server Configuration Manager to try to determine what my instance name is and the first thing I noticed is that when I click on the "SQL Server Servies" node of the "SQL Server Configuration Manager" tree structure, I'm getting an error message in the right side pane saying "The remote procedure call failed. [0x800706be]</p>
  
  <p>Could this have anything to do with why I cannot connect to it from a web application?  Bare in mind that I can connect to it directly using SSMS "(local)".</p>