AFter much hair pulling, I tried uninstall reinstall - no joy. Finally reinstalled ALL software including OS and installing 2005 EXPRESS without an attempt at loading my full sql server...

still no joy. I used several permutations of localhost\sqlexpress as the server name including

127.0.0.1\SQLEXPRESS

Deb-5150\SQLEXPRESS

(isp number from ipconfig /all)\SQLEXPRESS

and all of the above without the \SQLEXPRESS.

Also, I installed...

Thanks for the tips. I had already read online about setting up TCP/IP and had it enabled. I set the login mode to 2 (mixed), but only saw a loginMode...

Thanks for your suggestion of looking for mixed mode. I still am not seeing that as an option somewhere.

I rechecked login and password - they are what shows up in...