SQL Server Error

Good afternoon. I am not familiar with SQL but we do have it on our computer and there is an error that I have been asked to find out how to fix. The error is

Connection failed
SQLState: '01000'
SQL Server Error: 2
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBMSLPCN]ConnectionOpen (Connect ()).
Connection failed:
SQLState: '08001'
SQL Server Error: 17
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBMSLPCN]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

Please advise how to fix this.

Various issues can cause this type of problems. To diagnose and fix, you have to eliminate them one by one. First make sure that the SQL Server is running and that you can connect to it using SQL Server Management Studio.

Look at either of these two links and follow the steps listed there:

MSDN Blog2
Technet Article2