OK, I admit it, I'm a DNN neophyte. It took me about a week to install my first DNN site and most of the problem was pilot error. Still, I think I've managed to go from being totally green to at least a minor sub-demi-god and can get a DNN site up and running in about 10 minutes now.
I first installed from the 3.3.7_Install.zip file. OK, so I installed it maybe a dozen times before I got a clean install. Joy finally when the dang portal finally came up. Then I installed the 04.05.03_Upgrade.zip over my 3.3 installation (we are starting a proejct upgrade from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0). Took only 5 times to get it right (again, pilot error. Make SURE everyting from your previous web.config is copied over).
The long and short of it is I now have a nice, clean installation of DNN 4.5 up and running under .NET 2.0. So far so cool. So now I chomping at the bit to write my own modules for this.
That brings me to the "so now what do I do" point. It's time for a development version to be installed. What package do I download to get the necessary files for creation of custom modules? When installing this package, do I install it over the DNN 4.5 web site (i.e. unzp it into the inetpub\wwwroot\DotNetNuke_4.5 folder) or into my VS2005 projects folder? I hope once I get past this point, I'll be able to create my first DNN custom module; the web equivelent of Hello World (type text, press button, show text).