Nina, your freekin awesome!  Exactly what I was worrying about, you address every single thing.  You have me feeling a bit more than simple now, but I don't mind.  APPRECIATE you taking the time... AWESOME!  

Got space on discountnet (the name certainly does not mean they are cheap) to test everything and learn IIS7/Windows 2008/3.5/silverlight and do a small family project (family forums and pages). figured we can do all our testing there, then I can just keep for the family if we don't move over to them.  The price had me out shopping for other windows servers.  Just found out our server (lunarpages) offers windows servers now, and with their packages, DNN comes installed if you wish (at a glance, for free).  I'm thinking about staying with them and once we get everything running bug free, transferring everything right over to Lunarpages Windows servers.  If they offer their packages with DNN installed for free, we'll only have to worry about finding the right modules, and you've given me a great start.

I seen some mods that they offer them installed for what seemed to be a nominal price, my god this will make my life easy.

ANYONE have experience with Lunarpages Windows Servers?  Especially with the DNN installed? 

Well thanks for the compliment Bat 21 - and what's cool is that you now feel armed and .. dangerous.. - so it looks like DNN has another convert - which is always good to hear.

Discount ASP I have heard is good. You're going to find lots of people have different opinions on their hosters, fortunately for me, I host a couple of hundred sites now, but NOT the type that normal hosters offer, it's more managed hosting where we create the sites for clients and install only the modules we believe are worth putting on.

What you'll find is the biggest gripe that I"ve noticed about hosting is their 'medium trust' setup - eg.. they have security restrictions that cripple dnn - and make uploading modules that require more security settings than they offer.

Memory - some hosters like to squeeeeeze a few too many sites on the servers, giving users time outs, frequent appliction pool restarting or slow as a wet week.  Often people blame dnn incorrectly but a well setup server that is configured to run dnn will ensure you won't run out of memory.

Some hosters provide their own control panels and flavours of dnn which may be slightly different to what you download and I think, but I can't be 100% sure - the one click install on godaddy doesn't give you host access and you can't install modules and skins.. but you can if you do your installation.

I did read something about LunarPages but I can't remember if it was good or bad - you could search these forums I guess, or search on google for reviews about dnn hosting.  If they offer an install for you - then it seems they must have some experience behind them.

All I can suggest and i don't think this will affect you - Don't host with anyone who has not hosted dnn before - don't be the guinea pig.. or you'll end up the being the roasted pig on a spit.. because these hosters who are experienced with dnn hosting have ironed out the issues that may occur and your site is most likely going to be online more than offline.  If you've got a LunarPages account - try them and and share your experience here.

Be prepared to experiment - having a site to 'test' things is always better - especially when you are new and learning.

You sound so excited and happy and it made me smile - and it was really nice what you said and I appreciate it.

Nina Meiers