So I'm trying to get some clients working over a VPN, which worked on the old firewall but not on the new. Everything works so far, apart from SLX.

If I edit the connection properties from the client login screen, after I put in the server name I can click the drop-down for the database name and the names appear - I've found that's usually a pretty good test on the LAN client.

However, when I click "Test Connection" I get "Test connect failed" after a few seconds.

If I try to log in, I get the ever-descriptive error "Database login failed: Unspecified error"

Is there any logging anywhere I can check for details? I've tried ProcMon but it's not showing any errors in the SLX processes.

Basically, I'm stumped where to look next.

This is SLX 7.5.4, on Windows 8.

We had a similar problem following a server upgrade to new hardware.

The new sonicwall firewall was configured to block all traffic.

We used wireshark to identify that several ports in the 50k-60k were in use and once those were opened the problem dissapeared. Even though 1706 is used by SLX you may find that some additional ports are needed for the application to make the connectoin to 1706 on the destination. I couldn't find any documentation anywhere to support this but it worked. We are monitoring the traffic to see exactly which ports in that range are in use consistently.

It's actually port+1 for the browser component. So, if you are on default SLX port of 1706 - then you will also need 1707 open as well - otherwise, you cannot browse to slx servers (but you can just type the name in).

Are you sure you have the database connection provider installed as well - such as SQL Server Network Client ?

I don't think it's a firewall port, as we currently allow all traffic over the VPN. The firewall is showing no blocked connections. Also, I've had reports this morning that it's working for one user from home. It's quite infuriatingly inconsistent - and SLX doesn't help by providing such vague error messages. Is there a connection log somewhere?

Regarding the DB provider, doesn't ALL traffic pass through the SLX Provider? Do I need to install the MSSQL provider on the machine too? I've never had to do that on a laptop before, and in fact SLX works fine on these machines when they're on the LAN.

Yes, you do - and, no not everything goes through provider - in fact 2 our of the 3 ports used do not. You got lucky if you didn't install the provider - as this means the server is still using SQLOLEDB.1 - and every machine can connect. You need to move to SQL Native Client (newer versions will not support SQLOLEDB.1)/