The Client Network utility is used to manage the client Net-Libraries and define server alias names. It can also be used to set the default options used by DB-Library applications.
Most users will never need to use the Client Network utility. To connect to Microsoft® SQL Server™ they will need to specify only the network name of the server on which SQL Server is running (if the SQL Server software was installed with the defaults on both the client and the server, this will usually be all that a user must specify).
In some cases, a SQL Server installation may be configured to listen on alternate network addresses and the client must explicitly specify the alternate address, or a client will want to set up an alias to specify in place of the server network name in the connection request. These actions are done using the Client Network utility.
| Communication Components | Managing Clients |