Tip of the Month (February 2011)

Having mEnable Use Windows Authentication to Login to SQL Server

One way to establish a SQL Server connection is to provide a user name and password. Alternatively, SQL Server has a way to verify your credentials based on your network login (in the setup of a SQL Server ODBC datasource, this is refered to as "Windows NT authentication using the network login ID").

The mEnable server runs as a service. By default, services login as "system", not you. Consequently, when the mEnable server tries to make a connection to SQL Server on behalf of a handheld, it uses "system" as the login ID (when the datasource says to use Windows authentication to login). And, usually, "system" does not have the proper priviledges to connect.

You can have the mEnable server login as you, rather than "system". To do this you have to do two things:

1. In the windows folder of the mEnable server machine, use a text editor such as notepad and create a file called mEnable.ini. Put the following into the file:
   [SERVER]
   UserMustBeSystem=0
2. Go to the services control panel (START | CONTROL PANEL | SYSTEM AND MAINTENANCE | ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS | SERVICES). Double click "SYWARE mEnable". Click the "Log On" tab. Set "Log on as" to your username and password.