SQL Server Management Studio unable to connect to local instance

I'm not a database administrator; I'm a developer - and I'm having trouble with SQL Server Management Studio. I installed SQL Server 2008 Standard on Windows 2008 Server R2, and according to SQL Server Configuration Manager, I've got two instances: OFFICESERVERS (for SharePoint) and MSSQLSERVER.

When I open SQL Server Management Studio I can only discover OFFICESERVERS. I've checked the protocol configuration for both instances and didn't see anything that indicates to me why this would be.

Any hints?

So when you connect to (local) or just the name of the machine (since MSSQLSERVER refers to the default instance), you are unable to connect? Is the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) service running?

I had this same problem when I installed SQL Server 2008 R2 developer on a machine that already had an earlier instance of SQL Server Express installed for a specific application.

I was able to work around this by using SQL Server Configuration Manager to give each of the instances of SQL Server (other than the dedicated one for the specific application) a specific TCP/IP port (in Configuration Manager, look for Network Configuration, Protocols for the specific instance, and double-click on TCP/IP under protocol name - be sure to both enable the TCP/IP and select a non-used port, like 14330 or 14331)

Then, once I had assigned each instance its own TCP/IP port, use SQL Server Management Studio to connect to, e.g., .\MSSQLSERVER,14330 (be sure to use a COMMA, not a COLON, to separate the instance name and the port!), and you should be able to connect.

I did not need the SQL Server Browser service, probably because I was setting my own port numbers. In fact, SQL Server Browser did not help at all.

James Nachbar www.plastic.org