I'm also new to DNN and have always used VS2003/5/8 in the past. Although I have been greatly impressed with the thought behind the product, the installation process keeps knocking me back which is frustrating. Firstly, I am using a laptop that has installed earlier version of DNN some time ago and there are various folders scattered around with what looks like Source or Deploy/Install installations. I followed your easy DNN installation guide step by step.

1. I created a new folder of the root Websites

2. Then created a new database in SQL Server 2005 Management Studio and assigned a new user to it in (Local)->Security->Logins with WA and assigned it to my new SQL Database.

3. I then created a new virtual directory in IIS5 called DNN_Site and made sure that the default doc is Default.aspx, that Anonymous access is turned on and that it uses ASPNET 2.0

4. Then using Sharing and Security on the physical folder 'websites/dotnetnuke' I assigned modify permissions fr th ASPNET account.

5. Lastly I deleted the web.config and renamed release to web.config. I then modified 'Connection Strings' and 'App Settings' accordingly.

<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=DNN_CRA;user id=;pwd=;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

Also bearing in mind I am using SQL 2005 and not the Express version.

When I then run http://localhost/DNN_Site and your installation wizard appears. The first two steps are fine (I selected Custom install) but when I get to the 3rd page I get an error when test the DB connection. The error is 'Login failed for user 'mydomain/ASPNET'.

I'm sure you must have seen this many times but whatever I try I cannot get any further. I have VS2005 and VS2008 with .Net 3.5. Although I'm careful to make sure the only .Net 2.0 is set in the installation, could that make a difference?

Would really appreciate your help as I'm looking forward to doing a lot more with your product but for the moment have had to go back to putting things together manually.

Many Thanks

Steve

Many Thanks for the reply Sebastian. I have deleted the original folder, virtual folder and SQL database and then repeated steps 1 to 4 again and then deleted web.config and renamed release.config to web.config. The download I'm using is Deploy by the way. On firing up the browser I get page one of your install page, I select 'Custom install' and proceed to page 2. The file permissions check out okay and then I move on to page 3. By default the 'Select Database' stays on SQL Express File and the Database shows as ./SQLExpress which is incorrect. I change Select Database to 'SQL Server 2008 database' and change 'Database' to (Local). When I click Next or check connection I still get the error 'Login failed for user 'XXX/ASPNET'. Is it that I am choosing the wrong installation , say 'Source' or is it due to the older installations? I am still using Integrated security as all our databases operate the same way.

The other website can still be accessed through DNN with all the functionality but I access it through one of the servers.

Would really appreciate your help on this as I can't progress any further.

Steve

Appreciate your help on this. Ok, so I deleted all as before, downloaded 'Install' package this time and then repeated steps 1 through 4. This time when I got to Install page 3, the settings still defaulted to .\SQLExpress which I went with and got an error 'unable to CREATE table'. I changed the settings to refer to SQL 2008 and then I got the same message as before 'Login failed for 'XXX/ASPNET'.

Please help

Steve