You receive a "Server Error: An error occurred while retrieving the list of Databases" error message when you open a Windows SharePoint Services Web site in FrontPage 2003 and configure a database connection

When you open a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Web site in Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, and add a data source to the data source catalog (on the Data menu, click Insert Data View, under Database Connections, click Add a Catalog, and then click Configure Database Connection), you may receive an error message that is similar to the following when you try to specify a connection to a remote server that is running Microsoft SQL Server:

This issue may occur if the information that you specify in the Configure Database Connection dialog box is incorrect or if certain settings on the server are not configured correctly.

To troubleshoot and resolve this issue, do one or more of the following (as appropriate to your situation):

• If you use a custom connection string to authenticate to the database server, and you click Use custom connection string in the Configure Database Connection dialog box, make sure that you specify an OLEDB connection string, and not an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connection string in the Edit Connection String dialog box.
  
  The following is an example of an OLEDB connection string:

  Provider=Provider; Data Source=DataSourceName; Initial Catalog=CatalogName; User id=UserName; Password=Password

• For connections between the Web server and the server that is running SQL Server, enable SQL Server Authentication on the server that is running Microsoft SQL Server.
• Make sure that the Web.config file is configured with the correct proxy server settings on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services. To configure the Web.config file to include proxy server settings for the virtual server, follow these steps:
  1. Start Notepad.
  2. Locate, and then open the Web.config file that is located in the following folder on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services:
     Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Config
  3. Locate the </system.web> entry near the end of the Web.config file.
  4. Copy and paste the following lines to the Web.config file, immediately after the </system.web> entry, where ProxyServer is the name of your proxy server and Port is the port that you are using:

     <system.net>  
        <defaultProxy>  
        <proxy proxyaddress="http://ProxyServer:port" bypassonlocal = "true"/>     </defaultProxy>
     </system.net>

  5. Save the Web.config file, and then quit Notepad.
• If you want to use update queries, configure data retrieval services on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services to permit update query support. To do so, follow these steps:
  1. Start Microsoft SharePoint Central Administration.
  2. Under Component Configuration, click Configure data retrieval service settings.
  3. On the Data Retrieval Service Settings page, under Update Support, click to select the Enable update query support check box, and then click OK.

For additional information about how to configure and administer Windows SharePoint Services, see the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Administrator's Guide. To obtain the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Administrator's Guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For additional information about Microsoft FrontPage, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about Windows SharePoint Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site: