About this question
When connecting to a SQL Server 2008 R2 from a .NET 4 client application on a different server in the same LAN, one can set three different network protocols: TCP Named Pipes Don't set anything in the connection string and use the default What is best practice? What to choose? Additional information: Both TCP and Named Pipes are enabled both on the server and on the client. The application is using database mirroring. Client and server communicate over a fast LAN. We are investigating this because we have rare and spurious connectivity and timeout problems. (But regardless of that I'd like to know the best practice). There is an article on this subject on MSDN but it is very generic and vague. It does not advise or recommend anything useful.
