sql server does not exist - oh but it does!

[thebloke]

Guys

I have a couple of lines of code:

if request.servervariables("HTTP_HOST") = "localhost" Then
    strConnex = "Provider=sqloledb;SERVER=MyLapTop;UID=MyUID;PWD=MyPWD;DATABASE=MyDB"
else
    strConnex = "Provider=sqloledb;SERVER=mywebserver;UID=MyUID;PWD=MyPWD;DATABASE=MyDB"
End if

which, on my laptop (MyLapTop) works just fine. I have another machine, however, sitting right next to me on the same network that can open and query the database on my laptop from Enterprise Manager/Query Analyser however when I try to use the bit of code above I get the error:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (0x80004005) [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

This is when I try to open the connection using:

Set counterConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
            counterConn.open strConnex

If, however, I comment out the test for localhost and go straight out the the webserver database then that connects ok.

Any ideas?!

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that this worked before I went on holiday. I don't know, leave a network engineer in charge of things for 2 weeks and look what happens......!