Mitchell,

I ran the commands in my command prompt, and I got success messages in both cases.

However when I ran http://localhost/dnn2/Install/Install.aspx?mode%20=Install again to install DNN, I received the same error message as above.  I followed the directions as best as I could understand them for configuring my web.config file, but I don't know if my config file is right.  In particular I was unsure if my connection strings to my database where correct.  I am running SQL Server 2005 Express locally.  Do my connection strings look right?

  <connectionStrings>
    <!--Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express -->
    <!--<add
      name="SiteSqlServer"
      connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=dotnetnuke;"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />-->
      <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 -->
    <add
      name="dotnetnuke"
      connectionString="Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=dotnetnuke;uid=Eric;pwd=######;"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  
  </connectionStrings>
  <appSettings>
    <!--Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules   -->
    <!--<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data Source=;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=dotnetnuke"/>-->
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules -->
    <add key="dotnetnuke" value=".\SQLExpress;Database=dotnetnuke;uid=Eric;pwd=######;"/>

    <add key="InstallTemplate" value="DotNetNuke.install.config" />
    <add key="AutoUpgrade" value="true" />
    <add key="InstallMemberRole" value="true" />
    <add key="ShowMissingKeys" value="false" />
    <add key="EnableWebFarmSupport" value="false" />
    <add key="EnableCachePersistence" value="false"/>
    <add key="HostHeader" value="" /><!-- Host Header to remove from URL so "www.mydomain.com/johndoe/Default.aspx" is treated as "www.mydomain.com/Default.aspx" -->
    <add key="RemoveAngleBrackets" value="false" /><!--optionally strip angle brackets on public login and registration screens-->
    <add key="PersistentCookieTimeout" value="0" /><!--use as persistent cookie expiration. Value is in minutes, and only active if a non-zero figure-->
  </appSettings>

 You've a MSSQL Server configuration tool where you can set up the protcols for the SQL Server 2005 network. Named Pipes, shared memory and for a standard TCP/IP connection TCP/IP. Alternatively you can create a standard TCP/IP connection with following example:

<connectionStrings>
<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Server=yourserver;Database=yourdb;uid=yourname;pwd=yourpassword;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />connectionStrings>
<appSettings>
<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=yourserver;Database=yourdb;uid=yourname;pwd=yourpassword;" />
...

I've you have and using your personal firewall you must open the port for MSSQL (norm. 1433) for your own machine.

Thanks.  I don't have a personal firewall running.  I will check out the configuration tool you mentioned.