SQL Sever 2005: Connection Fail when connecting to the server using SQL credentials

Incase you are un-able to login to SQL server using SQL Credentials, then try the following;
1. Check if the user name exists in the SQL server.
2. Check if the password is expired / account locked.
3. Incase you get a error something like "Login failed for user 'XXXX'. The user is not associated with a trusted SQL server connection", then check the SQL server Authentication mode(it might be using only Windows Authentication". To check the authentication follow below steps;
a. Login into the SQL server using windows credentials.
b. Right click the SQL server and go to properties.
c. Goto "Security" tab.
d. Ensure "SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode" is selected in Server Authentication section.

e. Click OK.
f. Restart the SQL server service.


Hope this helps somebody.....