I am having trouble installing DNN 4.0 with SQL Express. I keep getting erroneous connection string errors.

I have read the Installation Guide about 40 times and still can't figure this one out.

Here is my installation procedure:

Note: My SQL Server Instance is called "CASES", you'll see that a little further down in my connection string.

1) I extracted DotNetNuke_4.0.0_Install.zip to D:\Intranet

2) I renamed the release.config file to web.config

3) I configured IIS with a virtual directory call Intranet pointing to D:\Intranet. I changed the default document to default.aspx and also changed the ASP.NET version the website uses to 2.0.50727

4) I then gave Full Control to <server name>\ASPNET on the D:\Intranet directory

5) I opened SQL 2005 MSE and created a new database called Intranet_DNN in the path D:\Intranet\Providers\DataProviders\SqlDataProviders

6) I made sure my server used both SQL and Windows Autentication and also that it accepts remote connections

7) I created a new Login to my SQL server for <server name>\ASPNET and made his default database Intranet_DNN

8) I then modified my web.config file with the following:

<add name="DotNetNuke" connectionString="Data Source=.\CASES;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Intranet_DNN.mdf;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

</connectionStrings>

<appSettings>

<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules -->

<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data Source=.\CASES;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Intranet_DNN.mdf;"/>

9) Navigate to http://Intranet and the errors start

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've searched the forums and then net and just can't get this resolved. It's probably a connection string issue but...I don't know.

I assume you have a Windows XP machine that is hosting DNN and SQL. A virtual directory should be accessed in the form of http://localhost/virtualdirectory. also, the login needs to be setup with dbowner permissions for that db. I am not sure if this is true for SQL 2005, but in SQL 2000 the login must have access to the master database as well; not as dbowner though, just as a normal default user.