Wanted to post here for the benefit of others:
AyaNova user would receive the following error on a networked computer when attempting to connect:
“A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)”
He confirmed all settings on SQL such as TCPIP and remote access, as well as turned off his firewall for testing as per the forum topics such as topic provider-SQL-Network-Interfaces-error-26-Error-Locating-Server-Instance-Specified), topic SQL-Problem-Unable-to-connect-from-a-workstation and topic Error+Locating+Server+Instance but still received the issue.
Ended up doing the following and now no longer an issue:
-Stop all SQL Services including the browser service.
-Set all services disabled (so when your computer first loads, the SQL components do NOT automatically start).
-Reboot the server.
-When the server comes back up, now set all SQL services to start automatically.
-Then reboot the server again.
-Everything worked great (confirm that all SQL services have started, and run AyaNova to confirm no longer get the error)
This is also another great link to check http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/05/21/sql-server-fix-error-provider-named-pipes-provider-error-40-could-not-open-a-connection-to-sql-server-microsoft-sql-server-error/
- Joyce