Unable to Remote connect to a SQL 2008 server

Question

I just set up a virtual server with Godaddy with CF and SQL Server 2008
The SQL server appears to be running because if I RDC into the server and connect using the Server management Studio, it works. To find the instance I have to look at network devices and I find it under MACHINENAME\SQLINSTANCE
The problem I have is that I want to connect to this instance using server management studio on a computer with SQL2005 installed. I guess/hope that a 2005 can connect to a 2008
I'm not 100% sure what the exact correct format is for the "Server Name" when trying to set it up. I've tried everything I can think of
ServerName\IPNumber\Instance
IPNumber\ServerName\Instance
IPNumber\Instance
Nothing seems to work, it kicks back with a big error, aying it can not connect:
A network-related or instance-specific error occured while establishing a connection to SQL Server.
The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify the instance name is correct and that
SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, Error: 26-
Error Locating Server/Istance Spcified) (Microsoft SQL Server)
The firewall on the server is off, I checked the properties of the instance and the option to allow remote connections is also checked
Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks
Mark

Answer 1

Solved this myself.
I was trying to log in with the user name of the adminstrator for the server, which worked locally while on the server but when I tried to use SQL SERVER AUTHENTICATION , tapping in the user name and password, it failed in the same way, even though the password was correct. Connecting using WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION worked, so I checked the users and found that user name did not have a password set because it was the admin I guess, so it just rejected all attempts using SQL SERVER AUTHENTICATION.
What I then did is tried the 'sa' user, and saw that it did have a password set when I viewed it in USERS... so I tried to connect remotely using that, and it worked... problem solved
Thought I'd post that, just incase anybody else came across the problem
After posting this I reversed a change that I had made from info found on another forum, and it stopped working! I put the change back again and it works, so it looks like a combo, here is the info that I found that helped fix the problem
"In the SQL server configuration manager, there is an item called SQL server network configuration, under protocols, I selected the properties of the TCP/IP protocol. There is a tab “IP Addresses” there, and at the bottom of the list is an entry called IPAll. In my case the TCP port was empty. I entered the SQL standard port 1433 in there and I was able to connect."
I had also since posting upgraded to 2008 locally, not that I believe it had anything to do with the problem
Mark