Hi KM,
Thanks for the encouragement, appreciate it. I didn't give up ;-). basically this is what happened
I am new to DNN as well as web development/hosting. So I setup a domain and tried to install DNN 4.0. This may sound like I am an idiot...I didn't know what database name/user/password to use. Is it DNN specified DB (specific connection string) that I need to setup in my server or do i use any DB in my server. I was trying different combinations. At the same time, I was using SQL 2005 but it was commented in the web.config file. I think the documentation could be a little more specific for novice users. Say, we can add a section, "for novice users" so non novice users can skip.
Now, I know the architecture roughly, learnt the hard way and it was frustrating, particularly when the only support here is via forum and a thread posted when you are stuck with a problem takes a day or two to go past the moderator. I guess nobody gets paid to do it and we get the framework for free, so better appreciate that.
Having passed my DB problem (uncommenting my SQL 2005 section in web.config and using the connection string provided by my host provider) I then got stuck immediately with error in web.config. It took a long while but it turned out that I was using DNN 4.0 but the server configured my app to use .NET 1.1. I didn't know DNN 4.0 required .NET 2.0 I had to run some actions at the server to reconfigure my app then I saw that beautiful screen lisitng the progress of the install. HOORAAY!!
Now I am playing round with the core modules and thinking of building a module myself ;-)
Cheers for your encouragement again
Hassan