I've been using DNN 4 on my webhost account for a couple of months and like it alot! 
So, as a Developer, naturally I'm intersted in going a step futher and have installed the Source Code to my Local Dev environment (Win XP Pro, VS2005 EA, IIS 5.0 and SQL 2000).
The Source installation of DNN 4 went perfect and I did it to the letter, exactly as the "DotNetNuke Installation Guide" PDF describes in the chapter entitled "Installation of DotNetNuke 4.x".
Also, the resulting Portals all work fine on my Local Dev and now I'm ready to Deploy it to a Production Server.
However, I hit a small problem when I tried to do the deployment. Below are the steps I used to deploy it.
(I'm a DNN 4 Rookie, what am I missing? )
- With VS2005, I built the whole project and then used the "Publish Website" feature to copy the files to the Production Server's Disk Drive. The resulting deployment was all put in a folder called "DNNPortals".
- Using the Production Server's (Win2003, IIS 6.0) IIS Manager, I created a new Website and called it "DNNPortals" and mapped it to the "DNNPortals" folder . I am not using a Host Header (Yet).
- I backed up my Local Dev Database using SQL Ent Mgr and moved it over to the Prod Database and did a restore. That went fine.
- Next, I went to the Web Config File and edited the connection string to point it to the new DNN Database. I saved the config file and exited the editor.
Last, using IE, I type in http://devweb01/DNNPortals/default.aspx and what happens next is humorus: the Browser appears to redirect back to my LOCAL DEV http://localhost/DotNetNuke4/ 
.
What did I miss? Please advise.
Thanks,
Fletcher Dunton
DNN Rookie.