Hello

I'm about to start a DNN site with 1and1.co.uk, who have hosted my MS site for a while now, but having trawled the forums it seems that DNN may not function correctly when hosted on 1and1 MS Hosting packages.

Has anyone used version 4.6+ succesfully with 1and1?

Secondly I want to run three DNN sites in the same webspace, each with different domain names and forwarded to a subdirectory

Does DNN work if installed to different subdirectories but use the same SQL server? Or do I need to install DNN on the root and then create subsites?

Thanks in advance

Can't help you with the 1and1 question, sorry.

Regarding your three sites, I offer the following observations:  DNN can work in the three subdirectories, but I think that you will run into problems if you install an upgrade on one subdirectory that updates a database table or two, which may well screw up one of your two other sites.

Another way, as you know, is to use the facilities of DNN to run these three sites with one codebase, one database and one IIS website, just changing host headers to ensure that IIS responds correctly.  In the event of a problem with one of the sites that requires a database restore, your other two sites will be regressed too.

I started off this way, and it's a great way to save money and share modules, but...

if you are going to do this hosting commercially, in my view you should use one codebase/database/IIS node per website, or, if discussed with the customer, one codebase/database etc per customer.  My reasons for doing it this way are that recovery is much more straightforward and one mistake (either by you or a customer) is not going to screw up another customer's system.  Me, I do separate codebases etc for each customer, and for one customer in particular who is planning to have a lot of user interaction and input, there will be separate codebases/databases for both of his sites.  Yes, it will cost you more to set up, but given that modules are generally very good value for money, any customer that isn't willing to pay such small amounts for the functionality and richness that the modules offer, probably isn't a customer that you want. 

The module developers will be grateful to you too.
Sorry, went on a bit there, and probably none of it applies to your situation

I have 4.6.2 running on 1 & 1 MS account.

I do have a problem with constant but intermittent 'DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: Attempt to access the method failed' errors which are due to 1 & 1 restricting users to Medium trust mode, while some DNN content is badly written and does not expose trust level as a configurable item.

As usual with ASP, the error messages are not module specific, and so tracking down the errant module is extremely difficult. I have 'request permissions = false' on everything exposed in the config file, but this is not enough.

Setup is straightforward once you get the right info, but basically

1. Set up your one single allowed mssql database in the 1 & 1 control panel. (Can take about 3 hours - so make sure you have plenty of time)
2. Gather the four exposed settings - server name, db name, dbuser, password
3. Edit the web.config file for dnn to comment out the sql express connection string and input the info gathered at step 2 under sql server 2000/2005 connection string in two places (i.e. both edits are required in two places)
4. comment out the allowlargefiles line in web.config
5. change the database owner name from dbo to dboxxxxxxxx - the alphanumerical reference from step 2
6. upload the dnn files (including the edited web.config) to a folder off root
7. use webfiles to set permissions for this folder, subfolders and files to full access (tick all four boxes) for both IUSR and Network Service accounts
8. Use webfiles menu option File | Application Settings to make your subfolder an ASP Application
9. Create and publish a default.asp page in root to redirect the dnn user to the install folder

As soon as you have a successful install, do a db backup from your 1 & 1 control panel, and also backup the dnn installed folder(s). It is very fragile and apt to fall over during upgrade attempts etc so keep very regular backups of both db and content folders, most especially just before attempting any major changes.

Good luck,

Bill