"

In the web.config file change the text

connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;"in the <connectionStrings> element to read something like this:="Data Source=<YOUR SQL SERVER NAME AND INSTANCE HERE>;Integrated Security=True;Initial Catalog=<THE NAME OF THE DATABASE>;"

connectionString

Also make the change in the <appSettings> element in the add element with a key attribute of "SiteSqlServer"  I hope this gets you past your install issues.

Hello everyone I just spent a few hours beating my head against the wall trying to get the DOTNETNUKE installation to work.  It worked once for me just fine but as soon as I got rid of all my MSSQL\Exptress instances and just tried to use my real SQL SERVER 2005 I started running into problems.  I would get a variety of error messages back from the DOTNETNUKE installation process depending on what version of the software I was using.  One version, 4.5.3, even installed successrully but then didn't populate my portal with any modules.  On other versions, I was getting errors like "ERROR: Could not connect to database specified in connectionString for SqlDataProvider" and "This site is currently unavailable." I was going crazy.  As it turns out all that had to be done is change the connection string.  The default connection string in the DNN installs seem to contain information specific to SQL Express versions and filesystem based databases.  I looked through the forums and there was a whole lot of talk about running aspnet_regsql.exe to enable some database functionality required by ASP.NET 2.0 and I followed all of these suggestions but to no avail.  Finally I went out and started looking into connnection strings and simple replaced the "file based" connection string with a "server based" connection string.  Here's what did the trick: