As an IT placement student I have reached the end of a 3 month project for the company I work for. I have migrated information to MSSQL server 2008 edition and I am retrieving the information for dynamic web page display using php. Now that I have everything in the right place I can see that I have only been testing this database by using php scripts on the same server that the database is stored on. I now have to put the database on an external server and the scripts on an internal server.
I have the required ip address of the external (sql) server but when I add this information to a php connection string I am not getting a response. The same thing happens where Ive written a simple test script using asp. The error message when using asp is "sql server does not exist or permission is denied" .The head of IT has ensured that the permissions for access between the servers are open, including making sure that port 1433 is being listened to by the sql server.
I need to know how I can begin an effective testing regime to pinpoint what the problem is. How can I test for sure that port 1433 is being listened to? How can I test if an information stream is being blocked by a firewall at either the internal side or external side?