Well, I bit the bullet and finally did an upgrade from 4.5.1 to 4.8. However, it was not without issues.

When I decided to upgrade, I copied my current directory on Server 2003 and named a new directory DNN2. Without making any changes to the IIS, I applied the 4.8 upgrade to the new DNN2 directory, when I attempted to redirect the IIS to the new DNN2 directory I received errors. I was able to return to my original DNN directory and the original instal of 4.5.1 was still working.

After changing some additional web.config settings, I was able to get to the 4.8 install screen and everything looked good, that is when my personal hell began...

I was not able to log into the sites... any of them. I went through 9 iterations of new DNN installs and finally got the damn thing to work after many trials and errors. But here is the thing, my primary host domain still did not work. All my other sites work fine now, but my original Host domain acted like it was a whole seperate install. I never got it t o work. So I switched to a new host domain, from one that was working fine, and deleted the old host domain all together. Now I am unable to re-create a new portal using the old domain, as it still acts like the install failed. I need some help figuring out why I cannot re-add the old host domain without getting errors and am willing to pay someone to help me get the site working again, as I host a web site for my brother's recently published book at www.howtomeasureanything.com.

Thankkfully my brother's sites appear to be functioning fine. But I cannot create a new portal for my own domains, iphone.hubbardgenesis.com and www.hubbardtechnologies.com without the system throwing me the following errors:

Server Error in '/' Application.
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Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   DotNetNuke.UI.Skins.SkinDefaults..ctor(SkinDefaultType DefaultType) +189
   DotNetNuke.Common.Globals.get_DefaultSkin() +31
   DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings.GetPortalSettings(Int32 TabId, PortalAliasInfo objPortalAliasInfo) +2746
   DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings..ctor(Int32 tabId, PortalAliasInfo objPortalAliasInfo) +82
   DotNetNuke.HttpModules.UrlRewriteModule.OnBeginRequest(Object s, EventArgs e) +3303
   System.Web.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +92
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +64
 

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Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.42; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.42

Your site was informative; however, as I did not have a test server I had to do the "testing" on the production box using a different IIS set-up and directory. I was never able to resolve the issues entirely. I am kicking myself for not backing up the SQL database, and I suspect a error in the DB is the issue I am facing now.

Just for reference, I am a Microsoft reseller and have a lot of experience with Server 2003, and DNN. However, I am no SQL wizard and struggled with SQL with my initial install. However, the 4.5.1 ran without issue for a long time. yet I must have impacted the SQL database in the process of "testing".

So now I am wondering how to fix the issue at hand.

I decided to do a fresh install of 4.8 with a new database. I am leaving the otehr sites on my first install and rebuilding my hubbardtechnologies.com sites on the new install.

Thanks for your help.