I need some clarification on the machinekey. From time to time I restore a database backup from a production machine onto my development enviroment. Normally the only problem I have is that I can't log onto the restored development site. I fix that by creating a dummy user and then copy the salt and the password in the database to the admin and host user and that's it.

My problem is that sometimes I can't even start the site - I get the error:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

According to the SQL Profiler the only access to the database is 6 times:

exec dbo.dnn_GetPortalAliasByPortalID @PortalID=0

I only restore a database backup and the site was running perfectly just before that. I think it has something to do with the machinekey.