I agree it *should* be ok to do in theory, but I dont think the server I plan to use allows it.  According to their documentation they dont allow 'file system' access by the site iteslf. I'll have to wait until my 'site' is ready and see exactly what restrictions they have put on it and see if they have a way to get around any issues I have.

Not allowing File System access isn't the same as not allowing a site read/write access to the files.  They may be running in a low trust environment which can be a problem or they may simply disallow the file system object.  But yes, if you have a choice in hosts, use one that supports DNN.

Jeff

I got more info for this..  Oddly enough the site runs fine on my own PC and the permissions on the host server look nearly identical to on my PC, yet it wont run on the host (keeps getting the access denided to web.config error)

The only accts on my own PC that have modify access are "system" and 'administrators" the rest have read access only. (including the iis_usrs acct)

On the host, 'system' does have modify access, iis_usrs is not even listed since the host uses a custom group instead, which does have modify access. 

Is there a way to tell DNN to use a different acct for its write priviledges?