I'm running SQL Server 2008 Express on a windows 2012... or at least I'm trying to :)
My problem is that I have opened the ports I thought I needed but still I cant manage to connect to the database from Visual Studio. As proof I have a screenshot of my firewall settings:
Everything works fine if I turn the firewall off, but who wants that while connected to the internet?
So I wonder what the heck is wrong? Is that some arbitrary ports that gets blocked? Is that a feature on the server (maybe its the same for 2008?)
Large image: http://bildr.no/view/1280743
SQL Server Express typically installs as a named instance, which by default uses a dynamic port. In most cases, it will use 1433 (but not always). You may want to step through:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177440(v=sql.100).aspx
and see if you can assign the service to a fixed port.