Mark Drew (Redux)- cf_etc...

Ok, the title is a bit misleading, but if you are using Parallels it isnt. I come across a problem of connecting ColdFusion server (running under OS X) to a newly installed version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 running under Parallels. After I installed SQL Server, I was able to ping the machine but not connect to it and was getting "Connection Refused" errors in the Datasource setup under CFAdmin. To start off with, I went to check if the service was running. Since it was, I opened up Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2005 -> Configuration Tools -> SQL Server Configuration Manager. In the manager open the "SQL Native Client Configuration" then "Client Protocols" and double click on "TCP/IP" you should get a window with: Default Port: 1433 Enabled:No Change the Enabled setting to yes. Then, open up Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall and click on the "Exceptions" tab. "Click Add Port...", enter MS SQL as the name and add the port 1433. You should now be able to connect to the MS SQL server from ColdFusion on OS X

I did a fresh install of Windows with ColdFusion 7.02 and MS SQL 2000 (SP2?) under Parallels on my MacBook Pro the other day. After I had installed everything I tried to set up a DSN in ColdFusion but I kept getting "connection refused" errors, no matter what I did. I did a lot of googling to find a solution and found lots of work arounds including setting up a ODBC data-source. None of these were satisfying, I mean, you SHOULD be able to connect to a database right? That's the whole point! So that I don't do the same mistake again I thought I would blog it. The solution is actually rather simple, you just have to install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a. That totally solves the problem. (I haven't checked with upgrading to Service Pack 4 yet.) On a related note, I was able to connect to the Microsoft SQL Server running under Parallels from OS X. Pretty neat!

I just spotted that Microsoft have updated MSN for OS X, haven't spotted much of a change yet, but it is finally a Universal Application rather than the old PPC, so it should run a bit faster. Some of the features it touts are:

• Chat with Yahoo contacts (fantastic... right)
• I can have a status message
• You can see what I am listening to (your life must be so boring if you want to know that)
• I can send custom "emoticons" (oh great, I managed to escape those stupid "lol" images by getting rid of windows, now they are back)
• On a plus, I can search through my conversations using Spotlight
• I can write well written messages as it has spell checking

Don't think it does video, voice or anything useful, once I manage to get MSN and Yahoo via iChat I can remove this puppy.