Client Network Utility
The Client Network utility is used to manage the client Net-Libraries and define server alias names. It can also be used to set the default options used by DB-Library applications.
Most users will never need to use the Client Network utility. To connect to Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000, users can specify only the network name of the server on which SQL Server is running, and optionally the name of the instance of SQL Server.
In some cases, an instance of SQL Server may be configured to listen on alternate network addresses. If this is done, client applications connecting to that instance must explicitly specify the alternate address. While applications could specify the alternate addresses on each connection request, it is easier to use the Client Network utility to set up an alias specifying the alternate addresses. Applications can then specify the alias name in place of the server network name in their connection requests.