It simply tells you that a packet of information (32 bytes in size) was sent to the target computer, and the response time was less than 1 millisecond.

Each packet has...

Not quite sure what you are after here, but to execute the ping command from QA, try something like this:

EXEC master..xp_cmdshell 'ping 192.168.1.1'

Check out the system function DATABASEPROPERTY('<database name>','IsOffline') in BOL.

You probably be better off using the ISNUMERIC() function.

I have to say I agree with you on four of the seven points (#2 to #5); not sure about point #6, and haven't a clue about what it is...

There is this Steve Jones' article you can use:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/viewscript.asp?scriptid=82

Has the SQL Server service account being granted READ permissions to the folder?

The SQL Collation of a database is inherited from the Server setting when the database is created.

Option 1: You do not have to re-install SQL Server to change the SQL Collation,...

The two common design model of a DW are the STAR and SNOW-FLAKE schemas. You will need to do a bit of research to find out the advantages/disadvantages of using each schema.

Once,...

You mentioned that the GST component is rounded per item/record. In this instance, depending on the rounding that is used, you may not be able to reconcile the summary data. 

The...

Yes, but just make sure that all related tables referencing this field is also updated using the same update sql statement.

In addition, you should use alter table statements to change...

A simple example that works? Why not try Books Online (BOL), which you should have access thru the help menu of QA.

Type 'bcp utility' and select 'copying data from data...

Or, if you are a little confused by the plethora of single-quotes, the alternative of using a simple while loop is as follows:

if object_id('tempdb..#databases') is not null drop table #databases

select...

You need to add the user as a member of the server role 'dbcreator'. In QA type the following to see the permissions for this particular role:

sp_srvrolepermission 'dbcreator'

Yes, adChar is similar to T-SQL CHAR data type, and it will pad the data with white-spaces to the length defined by adChar.

You can use TRIM() or RTRIM() function to remove the...