Problem on SQL Server 2000 default port 1433

Last night, our Assets Management Server crashed and left us cramming. Our server admin gave us a temporary server where we can setup the application. The server is a Windows 2003 machine which has MS SQL Server 2000 installed. After an hour of data restoration, we tested our ASP.NET application and found the following error: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

The tricky about it is that we are using MS SQL 2000 and not 2005. We are quite sure that the remote connections was enabled and there were no firewall activated. To check if SQL is listening at port 1433, I tried the following:

1. using "TELNET AFE_Server 1433" on command prompt but it returns "connection failed".

2. Running the following command "osql -SAFE_Server,1433 -E" and the server returns "[DBNETLIB]SQL Server does not exist or access denied"

We are about to lose hope when out of nowhere I suggested to install SQL Service Pack 4. And like a miracle answered... It works!

For more SQL Server fixed and tips, subscribe now.

Twitter is down. I repeat. Twitter is down

An attack to shut down the fast-growing messaging service Twitter was successful for hours. Twitter was inaccessible for several hours on Thursday morning. The company said it suffered a denial-of-service attack, in which hackers command scores of computers toward a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through.


According to GMA News:
The attacks appear to have been related to the Russia-Georgia political conflict. They started with a flurry of spam e-mail messages sent out this morning that contained links to pages written by a single activist on multiple social networking sites, according to Bill Woodcock, research director of the San Francisco-based Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit that tracks Internet traffic.

For tweet fans, Twitter is a communications standard rather than just a social-media brand.

To stay up-to-date on Technology news, subscribe now.

How to get a random number from 1 to N in SQL Server

If you want to pick a random number from a range for example 1 to 1000 in SQL, you can use the RAND() that returns a pseudo-random float value plus the NEWID() function which creates a unique value of type uniqueidentifier. Here is a short SQL sniffet that picks a random number from 1 to 1000.

DECLARE @RandomNum int
SET @RandomNum = CONVERT(int, 1 + 1000*RAND(CHECKSUM(NEWID())))
PRINT @RandomNum

For more SQL Coding Tips, subscribe now.

X2X Free Audio Converter - extract audio from videos

Recently I bought I Music Video CD from a nearby Entertainment store. I loved each track on the Music Video CD and I want to bring it along on my car except that my stereo can only play MP3 and Audio CDs. So this is where X2X Free Audio Converter comes in. X2X Free Audio Converter is a free, simple, practical and user-friendly audio formats converter.


It can extract audios from videos; convert audios into other audio formats, such as MP3，AAC, WAV, WMA, OGG, and so on. X2X supports all the present video formats: AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV, MP4, RM, RMVB, ASF, and so on.



The most updated X2X Free Audio Converter version 2.0 was released on 15th, July, 2009 and can be downloaded here.

For more cool softwares discoveries, subscribe now.

Send Prepaid cellphone reload to Philippines

Prepaid cellphone load are commonly used on third-world countries such as Philippines. If you have relatives or friends on the Philippines or India and your living in U.S. or Canada, you can recharge or reload their prepaid cellphones through Aryty online service. Using Aryty, you can send money directly into the cellular accounts without fees, simply enter your credit card information, and the credit is instantly added to the cellular account of your relative or friends (they will receive an SMS message notification).


How Aryty Works?
You can send recharge or reload in two ways, sending from a PC and Sending From Your Phone.



Aryty does not charge any fees for sending a request from the Site or by SMS. However, the person you are requesting from will incur standard usage charges from their mobile carrier for receiving requests via SMS. Aryty supports major carriers in the Phillipines, and is now expanding into India, where it expects to have support for around 98% of the market by the end of the year.

For more cool internet discoveries, subscribe now.

How to read a web page using C#

Ever wondered How does search engine spider crawl web pages? On this article, I will try to show you How you can achieve similar task using a C# .NET. The following code will read a web page using a virtual path and get the response then store it locally.


First, include the following namespace to use the WebRequest and StreamReader classes.

using System.Net;
using System.IO;

Then use the following code to read or crawl a web page

WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create("http://www.fryan0911.com/2009/08/how-to-read-web-page-using-c.html");
using (WebResponse response = request.GetResponse())
{
  using (StreamReader responseReader = 
    new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
  {
    string responseData = responseReader.ReadToEnd();
    using (StreamWriter writer =
      new StreamWriter(@"C:\SaveResponse\sample.html"))
    {
      writer.Write(responseData);
    }
  }
}

For more C# coding tips & tricks, subscribe now.

Google Images Search Options

Google added some new features to its image search, adding another notch up to image search competition again its rivals: Yahoo and Bing. The new features was added to its Search options that allow users to narrow down image search by color, kind of image (such as a photo, clip art, line drawing or face) and file size.

Now on the size search, you can query for an exact image size or any image larger than a certain size. You can find images of practically any size, including 70 megapixels or more.

Google also mentioned the new layout (image search option blog).

The new layout makes it faster and easier to combine and toggle between options. It also makes it easier for us to add additional image search options in the future, so keep your eyes peeled. Just click "Show options..." in the blue bar on the search results page to try out any of these tools.

To stay up-to-date on software & internet news, subscribe now.

Google Chrome now support Themes

The latest developer version of Google Chrome can now be easily re-skinned using its newest themes support feature. If you have the new Chrome developer release, two sample themes are available: Camo and Snowflake. To use them just click the link to save the CRX file then Chrome will then switch themes.

You can also make your own themes beyond Google's two samples, Google has published a draft themes design document that teach you how to do it.

The themes support is available both on Windows and Mac version. For more information about this news read the complete review via CNET.

Note: To try this feature you must be using the Chrome developer release which you can get by downloading and installing the Channel Chooser and switch to the development stream.

To stay up-to-date on Technology news, subscribe now.