“The database name could not be accessed. In order to access this database, check your network connection and verify that your database server is available. It may be necessary to disable any firewall software on your computer or server.”

Act! Answer ID  19640  http://is.gd/rpqb

In this user’s case the SQL Server (ACT7) service keeps stopping or doesn’t start when the laptop is rebooted (we’re tracking which). So I wrote a batch file (of which I’ve only done a couple)  that will start the service.  For those of you who don’t know, a batch file is just a text file saved with the .bat extention instead of  the .txt extention and the contents contain a command for Windows to perform (careful that you have “Hide extensions for known file types” unselected in “Folder Options” -> “View”. In this case the command in the batch file is

::Turns on Act SQL Server Service
@ECHO OFF
NET START (or STOP) “exact name of service”

Programming is fun!! BTW, I stole this batch file from http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-137177.html