JP Fraser wrote
We have a number other of sites with Godaddy which we have nad no problems with but the person who provides our tech support does not like the idea of the news site not being hosted in the root directory.
You can install DNN on the root directory in GoDaddy. I did it a year ago and I am not a DNN expert. It was my first installation ever on shared hosting and I was able to Google and find instructions to do it.
In general, you perform a "manual" install and need to alter the security for appropriate subfolders to allow visitors to write and execute. GoDaddy provides an automated install option, but that does install to a subfolder - so you don't want to use that.
I called GD support and asked if there was a way to install at the root and I was told "NO". I asked why, and the rep cited security issues, that's the way GD does it, etc. I asked if there is a genuine technical issue or if it's really just a way of keeping customers out of trouble and with easy to support "standard GoDaddy" installs. Also I said that I saw no reason for the root install to work if I was able to modify permissions on folders. He put me on hold, talked to someone else and then said that I could try it. So I did, and it worked like for many ohers who have done it.
There's a couple of things I didn't like about the GD hosting - they could be more or less of an inconvenience, so you be the judge.
1. GD only allows restoring SQL backups made from GD databases. You cannot FTP upload a backup your local SQL DB and restore it on GD. You have to use a Microsoft Tool for uploading DB to shared hosting environments. It's called the Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard. Takes a small learning curve and one day I received repeated errors publishing and was unable to upload the DB. The GD support for the tool is zero. The following day it worked, so I attributed the problem to transient communication problems or timeout, and left it at that.
2. I didn't see this detail written anywhere, but while GD backs up your account files (daily I think) you can't do restores on your own. You need to call them and pay for restores (I think around $150), so you have to take care of your own backups so you can avoid those costs. However, you can restore SQL DB backups you've made manually. I find this call and pay for restores thing dissapointing, since I have another hosting provider costing only $12/mo that backs up twice daily and all backup generations and files are user restorable through control panel.
I hope this helps. At least, the root install is possible.