Mark,

I share your pain.  I like DNN.  But the install is frustrating and semi-heiroglyphic, even for a guy who's been programming for 30 years now.  I could figure out MS C 3 and 4 and SDK programming for Windows 286/386 and installing DNN isn't as hard as that, but it's still hard.  My pet theory is this...it's done by guys working in their spare time and I've never met a programmer who LIKES doing the install package.  So...the install package gets short shrift.

That said, it is installable, but it takes a fair bit of digging and asking for help.  The portal alias stuff had me stymied until I found it in these forums.  Now I've got DNN installed, but I can't figure out how to get the 2nd and 3rd sites running from a single install.  I know it can be done, I've used the host menu, went to portals and added a portal, and it seems to be there.  Then I added host aliases for it, but I cannot seem to get to the second site with the browser.  Only the first (main?) one.  Mea Culpa.  This thing is do dang cool and my end-users who are not programmers can edit the content without bothering me (or paying me) and they love that and I love it.  So...I'm going to keep plugging away.

Anyhow, I do feel your pain.  Not that it solves your problem.