As Griff suggested, put the connections string in a file, or as a defualt on your inteface. If you test the Crystal report on the same machine as the server and it works, but gives you an error when you run the report from another machine, there can be a few things to try. install SSMS on the remote machine and try connecting to the server from there. if it times out and does not connect, there are probably two main reasons
1 - the server is not listening, TCP/IP port are usually off by default. see link
Enable or Disable a Server Network Protocol - SQL Server | Microsoft Docs[
^]
2 - Try using "server Authentication" rather than "windows authentication". SQL Server in Microsoft Docs is a good place to start (search for "Change server authentication mode" link
Microsoft SQL documentation - SQL Server | Microsoft Docs[
^] if server authentication works, but windows authentication doesn't, it is most likely permissions on the server need setting up, Google for SQL scripts that set permissions. You may also need to get both client and sever machines asdded to the same domain and user group for windows authentication to work
there can be numerous reasons, but these were the two that worked for me, setting the ports to listen, and permissions.
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