How To Connect with Different Port Numbers?

You know that SQL Server could be configured to accept connections with different TCP/IP port numbers. See other tutorial collections on how to view and configure SQL Server TCP/IP protocol.

If you installed SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with default settings, it should be running with instance name of "SQLEXPRESS" and port number of "1269" You can use the mssql_connect() function to connect to the server in 3 ways:

$con = mssql_connect('LOCALHOST','login','pass');
$con = mssql_connect('LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS','login','pass');
$con = mssql_connect('LOCALHOST,1269','login','pass');

Other ways of entering the server name and port number will not work. The PHP manual has this statement: "servername - The MS SQL server. It can also include a port number. e.g. hostname:port." The example is really for non-Windows systems. Try the following testing PHP script to find out:

<?php
  print("Calling 'LOCALHOST'\n");
  mssql_connect('LOCALHOST','sa','FYIcenter');

  print("Calling 'LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS'\n");
  mssql_connect('LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS','sa','FYIcenter');

  print("Calling 'LOCALHOST,1269'\n");
  mssql_connect('LOCALHOST,1269','sa','FYIcenter');

  print("Calling 'LOCALHOST,SQLEXPRESS'\n");
  mssql_connect('LOCALHOST,SQLEXPRESS','sa','FYIcenter');

  print("Calling 'LOCALHOST:SQLEXPRESS'\n");
  mssql_connect('LOCALHOST:SQLEXPRESS','sa','FYIcenter');

  print("Calling 'LOCALHOST:1269'\n");
  mssql_connect('LOCALHOST:1269','sa','FYIcenter');
?>

You will get:

Calling 'LOCALHOST'

Calling 'LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS'

Calling 'LOCALHOST,1269'

Calling 'LOCALHOST,SQLEXPRESS'
Warning: mssql_connect(): Unable to connect to server:  
LOCALHOST,SQLEXPRESS 

Calling 'LOCALHOST:SQLEXPRESS'
Warning: mssql_connect(): Unable to connect to server:  
LOCALHOST:SQLEXPRESS

Calling 'LOCALHOST:1269'
Warning: mssql_connect(): Unable to connect to server:  
LOCALHOST:1269

⇒ Commonly Used MSSQL Functions in PHP

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⇑ SQL Server FAQs - PHP MSSQL Functions - Connections and Query Execution

⇑⇑ SQL Server Connection Tutorials