# Troubleshooting connections to your SQL Server DB instance
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The following table shows error messages that you might encounter when you attempt to connect to your SQL Server DB instance.


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- ** Could not open a connection to SQL Server – Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 53  **
  - Make sure that you specified the server name correctly. For **Server name**, enter the DNS name and port number of your sample DB instance, separated by a comma. If you have a colon between the DNS name and port number, change the colon to a comma. Your server name should look like the following example.<pre>sample-instance.cg034itsfake.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com,1433</pre>

- ** No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it – Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 10061  **
  - You were able to reach the DB instance but the connection was refused. This issue is usually caused by specifying the user name or password incorrectly. Verify the user name and password, then retry. 

- **A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible... The wait operation timed out – Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 258**
  - The access rules enforced by your local firewall and the IP addresses authorized to access your DB instance might not match. The problem is most likely the inbound rules in your security group. For more information, see [Security in Amazon RDS ](UsingWithRDS.md).
  - Your database instance must be publicly accessible. To connect to it from outside of the VPC, the instance must have a public IP address assigned.



**Note**  
For more information on connection issues, see [Can't connect to Amazon RDS DB instance](CHAP_Troubleshooting.md#CHAP_Troubleshooting.Connecting).