In MS SQL Server Managment Studio we can connect to any instance by using TCP/IP protocol. To do this we can use the following syntax: tcp: server_name\instance, port . For example: local instance: tcp: .\R2,51550 remote instance: tcp: 192.168.11.5\R2,999 local alias: tcp: .\alias,51550
Damian Zapart, Principal Engineering Manager @ Microsoft - official blog.