Fast database access test from .NET
.net, connection, connection-string, database
Solution
You haven't mentioned what database you are connecting to, however. In SQL Server 2005, from .NET, you can specify a connection timeout in your connection string like so:
server=<server>;database=<database>;uid=<user>;password=<password>;Connect Timeout=3
This will try to connect to the server and if it doesn't do so in three seconds, it will throw a timeout error.
Problem
What would be a very fast way to determine if your connectionstring lets you connect to a database? Normally a connection attempt keeps the user waiting a long time before notifying the attempt was futile anyway.