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How to connect to a SQL Server instance without knowing the Initial Catalog?

I'm writing a portable program that can be used on other computers as well as mine and It also connects to the SQL Database on that computer.
So the problem is that I don't have the database name of that computer. How can my program connect to that Database without previously knowing the database name?
In other words, I don't have enough information to create a complete ConnectionString.

Connect to SQL Server's master database first.
Then, using this query, you can get data from databases in your database:
SELECT name FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases
Using the site below, you can find the right Connection strings for you :
https://www.connectionstrings.com/

You can use a dot in the connection string to represent.tbe local server.
Create a txt file, rename the extension to UDL. Open the UDL file and put a dot, a full stop:
If you have installed a SQL Instance (ie not the default instance) it will be .\InstanceName
Choose the Database drop down and click Test Connect.
Finally close the URL file and open it with NotePad and you will see the connection string.

How to copy the server database to my local Machine to generate scripts

My boss said
"To do so, SCRIPT the real database using SQL Manager / Tasks
RUN that script locally in a Query Window on your own machine to create a local copy of the database.
Note: Your new database will have all Tables and Procedures but will have NO data in it. You will need to add your own "dummy data" to make things work for you as you test.
Create a second connection string in your web.config that connects to your local database
use that connection string for your development work
However i don't actually understand how to do that.

Follow these steps:
1. Connect to your remote server from SQL Server Management Studio.
2. In object explorer, right click on your database and select Tasks>Generate Scripts.
3. Click on Next and then again click on Next.
4. Select the file system path where you want to save the database script for the database and click on Next
5. Click on Next. A .sql file will generated.
6. Connect to your local server from SQL Server Management Studio.
7. Open the newly created database script in SQL Server Management Studio and execute it. A copy of your database on remote server will
be created on your local server.

Additionally to the answer above, change the connection string in your web.config by changing the name of the data source to your Server Name (the name you use to get into SQL Server) and change the initial catalog to the name of your local database. Provide additional username and password fields if you're using SQL Server authentication. If you're using Windows Authentication specify it.
Example string for SQL Server Authentication:
<add name="YourEntities" connectionString="*your metadata link*;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string="Data Source=**your server name**;Initial Catalog=**your database name**;User ID=**your username**;Password=**your password**; MultipleActiveResultSets=True;App=EntityFramework"" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
Just change the values of the attributes data source, initial catalog, username and password.
For windows authentication:
Add the following attribute:
Integrated Security=True;
and remove attributes username and password.

Correct Connection string for accessing remote database server

I have developed a c# program I want to use to access a remote server from a client computer on the same domain.Every time I try to connect to the database I am getting an error login failed for user domain\myclientusername
Using the connection string below:
<add name="dbname" connectionString="Server=remoteservername;Database=dbname;Integrated Security=True;"/>
I have already checked and the server is set to allow remote connections. I am able to log on to the server using admin credentials do I need to set the connection string to use admin password and user name to connect to the database? or do I need to add my client profile credentials to the database permissions. Very new to deploying applications.

You will need to set up access to the database for the connecting user/client PC. You sort of "map" a user on the domain to a SQL user or group
Go to SQL management studio> connect to your database> expand databases > expand 'security' and then 'logins'
right click logins and select new login. search for the user of the connecting user/client PC. Then under the "user mapping" tab you can give access to the specific database. it may be best to give "db_owner" at first just to ensure you have the connection. after that, you should limit the access to only what is needed.
you can always check the SQL events log from the SQL machine itself and see what the specific authentication issues may be. go to "Events" in the Administrative tools (which is in control panel) and you can see SQL specific events.

Either you can remove the Integrated Security=True in your connection string and insert the username and password of a Login you create in you SQL Server database to your connection string.
Or, you can create a login for the user under which your c# program is running (yourself - for testing, domain service account under production) to the SQL Server and give it appropriate read/write access.
More information on connection strings: http://www.connectionstrings.com
More information on how to create login in SQL Server : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa337562.aspx

When you set Integrated Security=True , the current Windows account credentials are used for authentication.
Since you are trying from a different PC than the one that is running the SQL instance it is much likely the acount you are trying to connect with differs from the acount registered to the instance log in.
what you can do is:
Use Integrated Security=sspi and provide the login credentials, e.g:
connectionString="Server=remoteservername;Database=dbname;User id= myUser; Password=myPass;Integrated Security=sspi";
you can also set Integrated Security=false and also provide the credentials, (but the connection won't be using Windows Athentication)

Connecting application to database on a pc over an intranet

I'm developing an application that needs to access files on computers in an intranet, the files are database files and each computer has its own database, from what i have read i need to use a //server connection string, however I want to code my application in such a way that the user selects the computer they want to retrieve the that from for example they would select "Computer 2" and the application would create the connection string, connect to the database and populate it

I would recommend creating a connection string for each machine you are accessing in the web.config file and then using the user's selection to pull the correct connection string from the config file to instantiate the connection.

I have it working with this code
string myconnectionstring = #"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=\\" + PCName + #"\data\data.mdb"

asp.net c# connect to local Db vs2008

I'm making an ASP.net with c# webapp using VS 2008, and I added a new sql database item to my project. I added tables to the databse. In the database explorer the test connection works. I guess I have two questions. One:In the application, how does one connect to the database using a connection string? or what connection string should I use? Second: How do I add a username and password to the database?
Right now I'm using this connection string in the web.config file, but when I run the app it times out and says it can't make a connection. The error is on the conn.open line.
add name="ReportsConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source=(local); Initial Catalog=REPORTS;Integrated Security=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
I have this code in one of my page's codebehind.
string sqlquery = "SELECT * FROM reportitems";
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ReportsConnectionString"].ConnectionString))
{
conn.Open();
using (SqlCommand comm = new SqlCommand(sqlquery, conn))
{
using (SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter(comm))
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
adapter.Fill(ds, "reportitems");
DataRowCollection dra = ds.Tables["reportitems"].Rows;
foreach (DataRow dr in dra)
{
string DRZ = dr[0].ToString();
//more stuff here
}
}
}
}

Usually SqlServer Express is reachable on your local PC using this syntax for the Data Source parameter yourpcname\SQLEXPRESS. To be sure start Management Studio and look at the Server Name request.
For the security part of your question, I suppose that you don't want the Integrated Security option (Windows User), but you want a SQLServer user. In this case you could use the User ID and Password parameters for the connection string:
Data Source=MYPC\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=REPORTS;User Id=MYNAME;Password=MYPASS;
However, this works only after you have added this user to the SQLServer.
You could use the interface of Management Studio app or you could execute a script like this
USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [MYNAME] WITH PASSWORD=N'MYPASS', DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
USE [REPORTS]
GO
CREATE USER [MYNAME] FOR LOGIN [MYNAME]
GO

The Integrated Security=True part of the connectionstring means that the server will use the credentials of the app pool running the site, and you don't need to specify username or password. The app pool identiy will, however, need to have access to your database.

Visit http://www.connectionstrings.com/ for a good primer on various ways to set the connection string for various applications. That'll show you why (local) didn't work but .\SQLEXPRESS did and how to add username and password to it. Here's an example lifted from http://www.connectionstrings.com/sql-server-2008
Data Source=myServerAddress;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User
Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;

As others have said, you need a SqlExpress engine running as .mdf is not a flat file. It is a SQL server express database file and you need to connect to it.
But what have not said is that a Database in your App_Data folder needs to be attached to the SqlServer instance. This step is only done once in the first connection.
In http://www.connectionstrings.com/sql-server-2008 you will find an example in the "Attach a database file, located in the data directory, on connect to a local SQL Server Express instance" section that looks like this:
Server=.\SQLExpress;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|mydbfile.mdf; Database=dbname;Trusted_Connection=Yes;
Also you can read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms247257.aspx
I believe that you will need to run some scripts and stuff like that to create a user and assign permissions to this user in this database, and then change the connection string (once the database attached), so I don't see a point in having the database in the App_Data folder. I believe it should be better if since the beginning you create your database using the SqlServer tools and connect to it from your application.