WordPress uses a MySQL database. This article is about Microsoft SQL Server database. So that’s not the cause. You’ll need a MySQL database server to run WordPress.

You wrote that (I quote): “PHP decided to remove the MS SQL Server connection driver in the PHP 5.3 package”. I am using IIS6, PHP 5.3 and Microsoft server 2003 along with MSSQL 2000. It doesn’t work for me. When installing wordpress, I always get the same error that no connection to database. Database name, user name or password can be wrong. I checked that more than once, everything is OK. Should I just change the PHP to 5.2? Is this the reason I can’t run WordPress? Would appreciate if someone helped me…

Just swapping out the DLL for the new one and restarting the web server should be enough, or if you want to rewrite it using the PDO option, that’s available too. (I have not tried out PDO.)

Yep, my IIS and SQL Server are two different servers. I’m sure that’s why it thinks I’m trying to log in as a null user.

Are your IIS and SQL servers on different servers? That is the only scenario I can see that you would get a null user.

$result = query('...');
while ($row = fetch_array($result)) {
  $result2 = query('...');  // this will fail
  while ($line = fetch_array($result)) {
    // more code
  }
}

This is because SQL Server 2000 does not support Multiple Active Result Set (MARS), which is only available from 2005+. Do a search for more info. But if you come upon such a scenario, you’ll have to either open up another SQL connection, or save the results from the first statement, then run the second statement separately. I will write an article about it with more details, but I just want to give you a heads up since you have this combo. The old PHP 5.2 MSSQL extension apparently allowed us to do this nested statement without complaining. I’m not sure how, but I imagined it must have opened up an extra connection transparently.

As for the null user, I just left out the username/password part of the connection array (as mentioned on the docs with using Windows Auth), and it said (null) was not a valid user. (And I’m sure there is no such user.) I use IIS6.0 and SQL Server 2000, like yours.

Never heard of a (null) user. Are you sure you were using Windows Authentication? Which Web Server. I am only familiar with IIS.

Anyway thanx much for your help.