ASP.net Page Connection To SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition Failure (across Domains/networks)

Hi all,

I have a production website at Godaddy and an ASP.net 2.0 page that successfull connects to a SQL 2005 instance provided by Godaddy using SQL authentication(User ID/Password). The Godaddy database has become too small (200MB limit) and the plan is to use the SQL Server 2005 standard edition at my office. In other words, I want to host my own SQL server and keep the front-end at Godaddy.

The ASP.net test page at Godaddy generates the basic connection errors when attempting to connect to my SQL server at the office. This error has several variations depending on how the connection string is configured:

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.  When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 - A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.)

 In this case the connection string is:

Data Source=xxx.xxx.xx.xxx,1433; Network Library=DBMSSOCN; Initial Catalog=Test; User ID=xxx; Password=xxx"

I've embedded this connection string directly into the ASP.net test page in order to make this page independent of the web.config file.

My MS SQL server is on a Small Bussiness Server 2003 with Sharepoint and Remote Workplace running, and this machine is behind a linksys router, and Routing and Remote Access is running in place of windows firewall.

I've openned ports TCP 1433 and UDP 1434 on the router and Routing and Remote Access. Telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxx 1433 connects successfull, and the SQL log shows listening on 1433. I don't know if telnet is telling me that there is successful connection to the port on the router, or if it makes it all the way to the SQL server.

The SQL server is running the default instance MSSQLSERVER. Locally, I am able to connect using SQL 2005 Studio, and I am able to confirm this activity in the SQL log. Since I've openned port 1433, I also see numerous dictionary attacks in the SQL Log. Based on this, remote connectivity is there.

The strange observation is that the SQL log shows no sign of a connection attempt from the ASP.net page. The connection appears to be failing before it reaches the SQL server. I've openned ports in the Linksys router and the NAT/Firewall the same way I've openned them for Sharepoint and Remote Workplace.

I also found that when I move the ASP.net test page to another ISP, then the SQL connection that worked from the Godaddy website, is no longer able to connect. An explanation of this would also be very helpful to me.

Is there something that needs to be configured to expose the SQL server to ASP.net pages that is different from remote access?

Does IIS need to somehow be involved?

Is there something in Small Business Server 2003 that could be interferring with ASP.net page requests to the SQL server?

Do I need to run my machine as a web server to make this work?

Any help with this configuration would be greatly appreciated.