Cool, I am happy I could help 😀

Try connecting remotely after starting the SQL Server Browser service.

edit: I noticed it was not Disabled, just set to a startup type of Manual...so all that is needed it to...

Some random thoughts...

How are you trying to connect from your workstation? TCP/IP?

- Check the "SQL Server Configuration Manager" to see which protocols are enabled on the DB server.

Is SSRS...

My opinion...you may be reading too much into the word "refresh" in the question. I have found many of the exam questions to be delightfully ambiguous. Based on the set...

As Dan mentioned master.sys.xp_readerrorlog can be used to read the contents of an error log into a table. The example Dan provided reads the most current log (log 0) but...

To my knowledge SSIS does not implicitly add a row number to your data set that you can reference. I think you will first need to manually add a row...

Approaching it with a CTE may make your code a bit more readable. Your original query plus an ORDER BY is first followed by mine which uses a CTE. It...

You can see them all here for SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981356

Whenever a new CU is released the KB article is updated. MS has a KB article for...

As Jeff said, if your consolidated EXPENSES table will reside in the same instance as the 72 dept tables then you do not need SSIS.

If you are looking into SSIS...

I asked for the source table (expecting it to be different) because I am having trouble confirming the data in the file came from a table with the definition you...

Can you please provide the definition of the source table as well?

This tutorial should confirm you're on the right track...and may get you closer to finishing that last 20%.

http://www.sqlshare.com/looping-through-and-loading-files-with-ssis_34.aspx

If you need more assistance go ahead and zip your SSIS package and...

You probably inadvertently hit the Shift+Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut. Happens to me all the time and it drove me crazy until I figured out why that would happen.

Cool. On my system the Linked Server "rpc out" property option had to be True for it to work:

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption

@server=N'linked_server_name',

@optname=N'rpc...

You're welcome 😀