I have to agree here. I have tried several suggestions over several days, and I still can't get DNN to work on my main webserver. It works just fine from within the Visual Studio environment, but no way can I publish it or install from the setup package or anything else, it simply gives me permission errors on the webserver.

I am happy to admit that it probably is something I have futzed up, but I create the portal and the database as per the instructions, then I set the permissions, and doublecheck the web.config... and it simply will not work. I have completely un-installed and re-installed several times, no luck.

I have Windows Enterprise server 2003, IIS6 and SQL 2005, which should work fine.

I am not completely clueless, I was able to get a php-based forum and MySQL working just fine. I work in the field and have managed servers since the win 3.51 days and earlier. I can compile the DNN source in Visual Studio 2005 and it works just fine with the remote SQL and the SQL Express.

To be fair, I think my problems are mostly related to proper setup/config/security with .net and IIS6, not DNN issues per se. However, even Google searches have not helped much for that. I tend to agree with the poster who suggested that any configuration of IIS or permissions that are necessary to get DNN running ought to be mentioned in the installation docs. I'm happy to help document this, based on my experiences, and that should make the job easier for other DNN noobs like me.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. A package this comprehensive (for free!) is certainly worth a bit of teething pains, and I am grateful for it. But there is no way that this is a 5 minute install without some sort of install script that will check (and configure) each and every thing that needs to be done on the server. Now, after the server is config'ed, it is quite possible that my users will be able to install a portal on their website in 5 minutes.... and that is an intriguing idea.