Getting this thing running was way harder than it should have been. While installing MoveableType, I found the server was missing a few key peices, and it wasn't going to happen. No problem, I'm better at troubleshooting .Net stuff anyway, and this .Text blog is a nice peice of work. All went well, until I started, and the db just - wouldn't - take. Ok, I'm no db guru, but this should have been easy.

First I didn't have EM. There is a cool EM site http://www.aspenterprisemanager.com that should have done everything I needed, but I just coulndn't get it to work, no error message, etc. Then Access came closer, but no go. Then I tried a little db app in C#, and still no luck. After learning enough to teach a course on the MSSql server, I gave up. Later, while doing something unrealted, I found that though the ISP added MSSql support through a control panel, and that claimed everything was working great, it did not actually map the mssql server into the appropriate CName record, which would mean connections to the db never arrived. It actually auto sensed all that needed to be added once you happened by the correct mystery page, but it needed me to press that all important submit button. Argh.

The hardest problems to fix are the problems you don't know you have. That probably says more than I care to admit about the rest of my life.