Hi Bob,

I think I'm getting somewhere.....

I tried both of what you suggested and both failed. Telnet said 'could not open connection to host' and the linked server using the port said 'no such host found'.

I then tried telnet again but used the FQDN and it connected! I then put that in the linked server and that works too. I did try the FQDN yesterday but didn't know how the syntax worked when using a named instance (I still don't) but it works with the port.

I now know, as you suggest, there will be an issue with this if that instance is restarted due to it being dynamic. How do we overcome that?

Andrew