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“Server Is Configured For Windows Authentication Only” Error

Kenneth Fisher diagnoses a misleading error:

In general, the errors SQL gives are highly useful. Of course every now and again you get one that’s just confounding. The other day I saw the following error in the log:

Login failed for user ”. Reason: An attempt to login using SQL authentication failed. Server is configured for Windows authentication only. [CLIENT: ]

This one confused me for a couple of reasons. First, the user ”. Why an empty user? That’s not really helpful. And second Server is configured for Windows authentication only.

But Kenneth shows that the server is configured for SQL authentication as well as Windows authentication.  Click through to see what gives.