ADO/ODBC connection string for SQL Server 2008

If upgrading SQL Server from 2005 to 2008, one thing to note is that the provider name has changed for SQL Server 2008. The provider portion of the string in both ADO and ODBC connection strings should be either

Provider=SQLNCLI10

or

Provider=SQLNCLI10.1

depending on which version of SQL Native Client is installed.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattm/archive/2007/06/07/sql-native-client-10-provider-name-change.aspx

http://connectionstringexamples.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20081229061112484

.NET applications will be unaffected as you do not need to provide the provider name in the connection string when using the .NET provider.