SQL 2005: No process is on the other end of the pipe

Kindly check for the following in Surface Area Configuration:

1. Remote connections are allowed or not.
2. Both TCP and Named pipes are enabled or not.

I believe you should have disabled Remote Connections.

Have you added an exception for the TCP port 1433 in Windows Firewall.

if you have done the above, then try to ...

start sql management studio,  
when you start a new connection, type your server name and in the same dialog box, select the option button.
This will bring the connection properties tab,
under "network protocol" select TCP/ip {click ok}
if that last step failes, select named pipes and try and then shared mem and then try

Both TCP/IP and Named pipes are enabled.
As for "Shared Memory": The checkbox is checked.

The priority is as follows:
1. Shared Memory
2. TCP/IP
3. named pipes

If i try to connect with options... and force connection with named pipes it fails with the same error.
TCP/IP fails with another error:
An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (Microsoft SQL Server)

The "encrypt connection" checkbox in unchecked, and force encryption is disabled in the configuration manager.
Enabling this has no effect.

I disabled Windows Firewall completely and tried again... sadly this doesn't make a difference.
I created a netstat report (included), but i couldn't find an entry with listening TCP port 1433.

For completeness sake, the SBSMONITORING service startup parameters as specified in the configuration manager:
-dC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf;-eC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG;-lC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf;T7608

Also, I discovered some strange things in the logfile (see code snippet).

2009-02-05 01:38:55.65 Server      Server local connection provider is ready to accept connection on [ \\.\pipe\SQLLocal\SBSMONITORING ].
2009-02-05 01:38:55.65 Server      Server named pipe provider is ready to accept connection on [ \\.\pipe\MSSQL$SBSMONITORING\sql\query ].
2009-02-05 01:38:55.65 Server      Dedicated administrator connection support was not started because it is not available on this edition of SQL Server. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.
2009-02-05 01:38:55.65 spid8s      Starting up database 'tempdb'.
2009-02-05 01:38:55.82 Logon       Error: 17187, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2009-02-05 01:38:55.82 Logon       SQL Server is not ready to accept new client connections. Wait a few minutes before trying again. If you have access to the error log, look for the informational message that indicates that SQL Server is ready before trying to connect again.  [CLIENT: <local machine>]
2009-02-05 01:38:55.82 Logon       Error: 17187, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2009-02-05 01:38:55.82 Logon       SQL Server is not ready to accept new client connections. Wait a few minutes before trying again. If you have access to the error log, look for the informational message that indicates that SQL Server is ready before trying to connect again.  [CLIENT: <local machine>]
2009-02-05 01:38:55.84 spid11s     The Service Broker protocol transport is disabled or not configured.
2009-02-05 01:38:55.85 spid11s     The Database Mirroring protocol transport is disabled or not configured.

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netstat.txt

Kindly add an exception for the port 1433 in Windows Firewall.

In Surface Area configuration Manager, enable remote connections and both TCP/IP and Named pipes are selected in it.

Kindly execute this in your query analyzer

sp_readerrorlog

You will be able to see something like Server is listening on this port No..XX
Try connecting the server using ip:xx and you should be able to connect your server.

I did both of them, but this doesn't help...
It still complains about "no process on the other end of the pipe"...
I tried "telnet localhost 1433" but the connection failed.

I can't find a query analyser or something similar, could you tell me where to find it please?

(Downloading SQL 2005 SP3, maybe (re-)installing this will change anything)

The solution was in the link, I had to tell the SQL Server what certificate to work with... Even when i disabled encryption the sql server needed it to start.

Thanks for your help!