CarlosRafi:

No, there is no website visible to the world, we've been using this just for the internal guys to share their knowledge.  So the way we used to access the site was http://internalservername/dotnetnuke  and dotnetnuke was just a virtual dir. in iis on the server that died.  Server's motherboard died, that's why we have to move dotnetnuke (but the hard drive is intact so I just copied the stuff from the dotnetnuke directory on that hard drive to my machine).  So basically, I set up a virtual directory (runs as ASP.NET 1.1 - I"ve checked, thanks for reminding me).  And the way I"m trying to access it is by http://localhost/dotnetnuke (or by simply right-clicking default.aspx and selecting Browse in IIS Manager). What happens then is browser says 'Website found.  Waiting for repply..." and then comes up with "connecting to site 'ip of the old crashed server'"  - which I just noticed now, when I was typing this reply...so I guess the IP or a name of the old machine is specified somewhere, I didn't find anything in the web.config...where would that live?
And yes, I do have other virtual directories in my IIS with things that I can browse to just fine.

Thank you,
Olga.

Olga:

I have to think about this but in the mean time, if the new Web server indeed has a different address, you may just need to wait and let it settle by itself, literally, as the address is propagated and "learned" by other devices (are you familiar with the Windows Browser service? And I am not talking about IE). I don't think that the address is anywhere in the DNN files, Web.config, or the database. How do you do DNS resolution by the way? Do you guys have a DNS server internally? If yes, you may need to check the entries for the server in question. Also, the workstations keep a DNS table of their own, which you can clear by doing IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS. The server too, since the client portion of it (which you use when browsing at the server console) uses the same architecture.

One more thing, regarding the aliases in the DNN table, you need multiple entries if you intend to access the server using http://serverNAME/dotnetnuke and also http://serverADDRESS/dotnetnuke, and for the server, http://localhost/dotnetnuke. You also need the host header definitions for the site to match these.

Another odd thought (I am well known for these) do you have a Hosts file by any chance that has hard-coded addresses??? (Applies to both the server and your PC).

If I think of anything else to try I will let you know.

I did think of something after writing this post, sometimes you just need to reboot everything, the server(s), the routers, switches, PCs, coffee pot, water cooler, etc. etc.

Carlos