It's working now, thanks everyone..

But it's hard to say exactly what the problem was. After trying for weeks and weeks I just kept starting over and over again until finally it worked.

It doesn't help when official instructions are a bit vague, ambigious etc. And also error messages seem to be the same no matter what I did. If only there was a full guide for the newbie with bullet proof instructions. (maybe this is not possible due to the sheer amount of variables and possibilities out there - diff OS, databases, diff versions etc etc.)

So many different people recommend so many different ways of doing things too, it's difficult to know who to believe/follow. If only microsoft threw abit more money at this and actually did some user testing with their instructions instead of assuming we know what their top engineers know. But why should they when it's a lot easier to throw up a forum and let people like you do the work for them! It's crazy; you do the work and microsoft get the plaudits and the money. If ony there was a way to reward contributors on a forum.

mark richardson,
Barnsley