I'm having massive problems with performance while running DNN on my hosting service.  I'm suspecting a lot of it is due to latency accessing the SQL database.  Recently, they started offering SQL Express services, which I think (in this case at least) might reduce some of the overhead and speed up the website.

My question is, how do I go about converting a website from one to the other? 

Dan,

You should be able to create a backup of your existing database in SQL Server Management Studio, then restore that database to your SQL 2005 Express server using either the free or full version of Management Studio. I don't know that I would suggest using Express though, as in my experience it is more of a hassle than its worth.  If you have the option to use the full version, I'd go ahead and do so. 

But if you do decide to try SQL Express, you will need to follow the backup steps above, then update your connection strings in your web.config to use the SQL Express connection strings.

Take care,

Ian

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'll be talking to the provider to see if this is actually possible.  I'm running it both ways right now amongst several different websites, and the Express version is just soooooo much easier to use!   Not sure about the performance, but if it doesn't have to travel across a server farm to get to another server, it just might be a hair faster...