SQL Server protocols

Any application that requires a connection to our SQL Server needs to communicate either over a network or locally on the same server via a protocol layer. SQL Server communication is based on tabular data stream packets, which are encapsulated into a common communication protocol. There are several options available for you, which you can configure in the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool. If you expand the SQL Server Network Configuration, you'll see the network configuration for your instance:

The available protocols are as follows:

• TCP/IP: This is the most common choice for SQL Server deployments
• Shared Memory: This is the most simple protocol, which can be used only locally and not for remote connections
• Named Pipes: This is a protocol developed for LAN connections, and it can work remotely

For most deployments, we need to properly configure the instance TCP/IP settings with regards to the available port numbers, which, on the default instance, are set to TCP/1433...