thanks for the replies.

it turns out that the name of my view had been created in error as a table, thats why i couldn't see it in the object explorer...

this is working now.

used:

SELECT TOP 100 PERCENT

WebFormData_2.FieldValue AS Surname,

WebFormData_7.FieldValue AS SpecialReq

FROM db.R

JOIN db.WebFormData WebFormData_2

ON db.R.WebFormRowId = WebFormData_2.WebFormRowId

and WebFormData_2.WebFormFieldId =98

left JOIN db.WebFormData WebFormData_7

ON db.R.WebFormRowId = WebFormData_7.WebFormRowId

and WebFormData_7.WebFormFieldId =99

Thanks for all the replies.

I asked the network team to check the firewall.

it turns out it was indeed a firewall issue - it was outside our DMZ and wasn't allowed...

yes, same name, (just not NIGEL obviously for security reasons)

but it worked ok before as the same name on sql2000.

I realise now, it might not be good practice (as...

yeah, I have changed the web.config in 2 places.

here is a sample of my web.config:

<add name="SiteMyNamedServer connectionString="Data Source=123.45.67.89;Initial Catalog=NIGEL;user ID=NIGEL;Password=MyPasswd" />

</connectionStrings>

<appSettings>

<add key="SiteMyNamedServer value="Data Source=123.45.67.89;Initial Catalog=NIGEL;user ID=NIGEL;Password=MyPasswd" />