Connection Lost / General Network Error

[goombawaho]

Hopefully somebody can throw me a bone here in terms of troubleshooting because I know nothing about SQL Server. I'm trying to point the problem away from a general server/network issue and AT the software people that set up the SQL Express database and their software.

Error using ChiroTouch software:
"Connection lost!! (-2147467259)[DBNETLIB][Connection Read (recv()).] General network error. Check your documentation."

Environment - basically everything is new
New switch and network cabling
New server running 2008R2 with all updates for Windows and network card driver (16GB RAM, Intel Xeon E3 processor)
SQL Express because we only have about 5 workstations connecting to the database
Server is running in a Workgroup environment at the moment, but I want to switch it to a Domain

Researching the error shows ideas along these lines:
* Network problems
* Use TCP/IP vs. Named Pipes for database communication or vice versa
* Turn off TCP/IP Chimney Offload

I don't want to proceed until I get some more experienced advice. I'm going to do network communication checks on Monday.

If the database is set up for Named Pipes and a ping -a doesn't result in a DNS name being returned, does that pose a problem for communications right there?

 

[BadBigBen]

* Network problems
when checking the above, make sure that on the Windows Server the NICs used are not being turned off by the OS, to conserve power...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[goombawaho]

Well, even DUMBER than dumb, I found yesterday that the Doctor's Win 7 workstation was set to go into SLEEP mode after 20 minutes. So, I'm hoping (94% probability?) that this is the source of the problem. I would think that if the client is logged into the database and then goes to sleep, it would throw some kind of error when the client wakes up.

Who sets up a computer in an office environment to go to sleep?? I know - it comes out of the box that way. I won't declare victory yet, but perhaps I started troubleshooting at the wrong end - server vs. workstation. At least I did all my troubleshooting remotely without taking a drive.

 

[Topkapi]

You don't say which version of SQL Server Express you have but for 2005 network protocols for remote connections are disabled by default. It may be for later version it was similar.

This may help

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2005/05/05/415084.aspx

 

[goombawaho]

It seems, so far after 1.5 days, that the SLEEP setting was the culprit. Which makes sense. I didn't set the computer up, so don't blame me. Will post back if error resurfaces.