Hello:

If you plan to upgrade from 3.x to 4.x I would recommend starting as fresh as possible.  Below is a quick summary of the steps:

1. Logon to your DNN 3.x site as "Host" and go to "Host" > "Portals".  There is a rather nifty tool here that will allow you to export your site settings and data (make sure the data checkbox is checked). This will create two files NameYouGave.template and NameYouGave.template.resources.
2. Begin to setup your new DNN 4.x website, but prior to running or creating your site copy the two files from step one located in your DNN 3.x portals\_default folder to the DNN 4.x portals\_default folder.
3. Rename the existing files, DotNetNuke.template and DotNetNuke.template.resources, to DotNetNuke.bak.template and DotNetNuke.bak.template.resources and rename the files you created and copied to the DNN 4.x Portals\_default to DotNetNuke.template and DotNetNuke.template.resources.
4. Run the solution or create your Portal as you normally would and you will have a new DNN 4.x website with your DNN 3.x stuff (Note: If you have custom modules, skins, etc. you will need to install these again.)

This will NOT port your user's information over.  I would recommend using a tool like BulkUser Import&Export that you can get at a reasonable price from snowcovered.com.  There is an alternative way to do this as well.  Instead of renaming the DotNetNuke template and resources files, create the site using this template and add your skins and modules.  Then add a Parent Portal and select your resources file you created and copied to Portals\_default that will be available from the template dropdown.  You may need to go through some of your pages, i.e. pages with HTML Modules and change the portal from say "3" to "0".  This all depends on the portal number assigned in DNN 3.  This will ensure your URLs etc. point to the proper location of images and other resources.

If you would like to do this for a multi-portal site, you will need to repeat these steps with one additonal step.  You will need to access your database and open the PortalAlias table and set the portal alias name to the virtual website, i.e. http://localhost/yourvirtualweb.  The assumption here is that you are making changes locally prior to FTP'ing your site to your hosting company.

Good Luck!

John