>Not even if you make this setting live in web.config?

<!-- set UsePortNumber to true to preserve the port number if you're using a port number other than 80 (the standard)
<add key="UsePortNumber" value="true" /> -->

Well you learn something new every day but why add this option to the web config file -

the wizard should be able to determine the port number from the url

However I did finally get my test site from 3.7.1 to 4.9.1 the only problem is 4.9.1

just will not update the blog content or import the blog content. So back to 3.7.1

 Hi Cort,

I think there's an issue with the installer that you're dealing with; and it must have been introduced recently, because I haven't experienced this problem before, but I did today and it took me an hour to figure it out.  Luckily, this thread saved me some time.  An earlier post mentioned that you may want to use localhost and other mentioned problems with non-standard ports.  My issue was that I was using an alias that I had configured in the hosts file.  I like to set demos up this way.  Write an entry to my hosts file like this:

127.0.0.1      demo.myclientdomain.com

That way when I go to show the site, it looks like I've set up a personalized demo.  

Well, this doesn't work with DNN 4.9.1.  It seems to be fixed in DNN 5 for what it's worth, since I didn't have any problems installing DNN 5 using my demo domain name. 

How I Got It To Work

I got it to work simply by installing first to http://localhost.  I've configured the root site for IIS to point to my new DNN location, since this is the best way for me to work with different client sites.  I jsut change the IIS settings when I need to work on a different site.

Re: DNN Installer Frustrations

I completely understand your frustrations, but I hope you'll give DNN a second chance.  There's a little more of a learning curve with DNN and at first it can be a little frustrating.  It's a really powerful platform, and in the end I think you and your clients will be really happy you made the choice to work through some of these initial bugs.  

Also, as I mentioned above, the installer usually works like a charm, so I think you're facing a bug that was recently introduced.  I've installed DNN hundreds of times and for me it's normally an incredibly simple operation.  If you don't mind using SQL Express, it's unbelievably easy (normally).  Just unzip the files in a directory, make sure IIS is configured to recognize this as a valid site or virtual directory and run the installer, which as I've mentioned usually runs like a charm.  I don't even have to set permissions normally.  

Bugs like this can be frustrating, but I hope you'll give DNN a second chance.  It's an amazingly extensible platform and there are some really exciting things on the roadmap for the DNN 5 releases.