Whats up all,
  I am a Newb to dotnetnuke and am going through the install right now...Just wondering, is there a reason why I need to set the dotnetnuke site to a virtual directory and not just make it the default website?

Thanks!

mschwaiger:

Well, I have to say that your statement about DNN not working if not in a virtual directory is not necessarily true. Based on what you are saying I’m assuming you are setting up DNN on Windows XP or 2000 Professional. You need to understand and differentiate the roles of the physical directory on disk, the IIS virtual directory, the host headers for the sites, the alias for the sites within DNN, and even the DNS resolution to get to the site. This causes a lot of confusion at the beginning because there are different ways to do it and depending how your setup is done is what you enter in the URL for the browser to connect. I for instance have multiple versions of DNN running on my laptop (and server) installed on different physical directories and accessing different databases. Some of these DNN installations host only one site, others host multiple ones, each with its own domain that is totally independent from the others. Also, realize that IIS on Win XP or 2000 Pro do not support multiple, separate Web sites like the server versions of IIS do. In other words, when you run the IIS Admin tool, you can not say RClick, New, Web Site, you only get the option to create a new Virtual Directory.

You would need to provide more details about your configuration, DNN version, etc. for others to be able to help you with the Object Reference error or more specific recommendations about your specific problems.

Carlos

Shadow,
Thanks for the response, but I don't think we're talking about the same thing.  Here's the thing, and I'll use your same example.  I have http://server1/DNN with my portal running.  Ok, fine.  But lets assume I have a domain name ABC.com, and I want to use DNN as my primary website.  So I point www.abc.com to the IP of server1.  Now somebody outside browses to www.abc.com and they get.... nothing, because they needed to browse to www.abc.com/DNN where the portal is.  Clearly this doesn't work, because nobody looking for my website is going to think to add the /DNN.  See my problem?  I need http://www.abc.com to direct to http://server1/DNN.  OR I need to install DNN as a website instead of a virtual directory, which I simply cannot seem to get working on my web server.  Did you follow all of the same installation steps except exchanged 'website' for 'virtual directory'?