I have what I think is a defect in all modules and in the Starter Kit.  The following code snippet exists in most, if not all, data providers for modules and in the starter kit.

            If objProvider.Attributes("connectionStringName") <> "" AndAlso _
            System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings(objProvider.Attributes("connectionStringName")) <> "" Then
                _connectionString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings(objProvider.Attributes("connectionStringName"))
            Else
                _connectionString = objProvider.Attributes("connectionString")
            End If

It seems to me that this code should be replaced with the following single line

_connectionString = DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities.Config.GetConnectionString()

I would like to report a bug, but I have no idea how to properly do this so that it gets accepted. IMO, this is a very serious defect as each module should not be reading from Web.config directly for something common like the connection string.

Thanks Mitch.  One thing I have noticed after further research is that some of the newly updated core modules do in fact use the proper method.  So, maybe the new starter kit does not have the issue.  However, I think all of the core modules should at least be updated to use this method (unless it would make all modules require DNN 5.x).