Hi Redot,
1. That file should not be empty. It has about 5 lines of code in it.
2. I used skin.ascx because I was unsure which skin you were actually using. It's often hard to judge how familar people are with DNN when formulating a response. I should have written (skin-name).ascx. The DNN Blue skin has about 4 skins of different names in the folder.
The main point was that if you had replaced the entire skin and container folder and contents with fresh unmodified files.. that says the skin is not the problem.
>> Perhaps try again and ftp the entire contents of Portals/_default from the DotNetNuke_04.08.04_Install.zip to the server. That will refresh everything in there including that noskin.ascx file.
3. You have to open the database using an application like MS SQL Management Studio Express or some other SQL manager that your host might have provided. Some hosts don't provide any method of accessing the database, others do. You'll have to decide whether you want to go along another path of learning with any of that, or do something else more drastic.
The only safe solution is to restore to a backup. Even if you haven't got your own backups, most hosts will restore a complete site and db to something recent. I would ask them if they can do that. Make a backup of the broken site and db first so that you have it in case you figure out what went wrong afterwards.
When I started using DNN I got my self into similar trouble... built and lost 9 portals.. and lost a lot of hard work in the process. Then I firmed up my work procedures and have been using the same single portal for nearly three years.
Keep reporting back here too
Rob