I am using a 3rd party hosting company and I am trying to use the
DotNetNuke 2.0 Open source project
built with ASP.NET for my website.

http://www.DotNetNuke.com.

I have already uploaded all the necessary files to the website.

I have already contacted my host several times asking them to enable
read/write access for the ASP.NET account
and the {Server}/NetworkService User Account so that the code can
dynamically create sub folders
within the Portals directory. This is necessary because I am creating
sub websites within my main website.
My host claims that they have set all the permissions but I still get
the error described below.

I have communicated this error to others on the asp.net forums:
http://asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=526989
http://asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=521691

Even thought it appears I can upload files to the site and update 
my style sheets through the portal interface, every once and a while 
when I view the homepage of my site I get the following error below.

However when I simply refresh the screen I can then view my website but then I
am unable to create sub directories using the code.

Please explain to me exactly what I need to communicate to my host to get rid 
of this error and enable my code to create sub directories?

DotNetNuke Configuration Error
Could not find a part of the path "e:\". 

DotNetNuke has extensive file upload capabilities for content,
modules, and skins. These features require custom security settings so
that the application is able to create and remove files in your
website.

Using Windows Explorer, browse to the root folder of the website (
C:\DotNetNuke by default ). Right-click the folder and select Sharing
and Security from the popup menu ( please note that if you are using
Windows XP you may need to Enable Simple File Sharing before these
options are displayed ). Select the Security tab. Add the appropriate
User Account and set the Permissions.

If using Windows 2000 - IIS5
- the {Server}/ASPNET User Account must have Read, Write, and Change
Control of the virtual root of your website

If using Windows 2003 - IIS6
- the {Server}/NetworkService User Account must have Read, Write, and
Change Control of the virtual root of your website

---

Clarification of Question by alexpol-ga on 08 Apr 2004 12:43 PDT

One more thing: When I try to create a child portal I get an exception
and this is the actual error:

Module Name:  Signup
Line Number:  0
Column Number:  0
Method:  System.IO.__Error.WinIOError
Portal ID:  0
User ID:  2
Tab Name:  Portals
Module Control Source:  Admin/Portal/Signup.ascx
Database Version:  2.0.3
Windows Identity Name:  NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Stack Trace:   at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String
str) at System.IO.Directory.InternalCreateDirectory(String fullPath,
String path) at System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(String path) at
DotNetNuke.Signup.cmdUpdate_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
Additional Info:

Looks like you don't have permission to create directories in the file
system of your host.

Generally hosts won't let you do this.

Might want to contact them directly.

If it runs fine on your local machine that's the answer.

They claim that they HAVE correctly set the permissions. So what next?

Did you set the file permissions correctly in FTP with "777"


X

What does "Did you set the file permissions correctly in FTP with "777"
 mean exactly? Never heard of that!

My host now says that they have set the permissions for the wwwroot
for my site and that it is a huge security risk. However when I view
my website homepage I get the same error as before. I am very
frustrated now.

I thought chmod to 777 applies only to UNIX hosts? My host is running
Win2K3 servers.

Alex, 

I posted the below in your thread in the asp.net DotNetNuke forum as
well, but since that is moderated I'm not sure how long it will take
to show up
---------------------------------------------------

I had the exact same issue as you, and it nearly drove me crazy as
well! I have a site hosted with Parcom.net and I have been setting up
DNN 2.03 on it. I asked my host twice to make sure the Win2003 Network
Services user had Full Control over the proper directories, but I was
still getting the exception [Could not find a part of the path "e:\"]
whenever I tried to add a new custom module. Looking through the code,
I found this was happening whenever DNN tried to create a new
directory. I could upload individual files through the DNN file
manager without any problems.

Searching through the DNN forums, I found several posts from others
with this problem, and it appears that there is a *feature/bug* in
.NET 1.x whereas the .net worker process (Network Services user in
Win2003) needs READ ATTRIBUTE rights (not read file) on the root
folder of the drive in which it is trying to create directories. I
have no idea why this is needed, but it was recently added to the DNN
FAQ's on www.dotnetnuke.com.

Many hosting companies will strip all privilages from the Network
Services account, and only add read (or write) access where needed,
like in individual directories of each web hosting acount. I contacted
my host about this issue asking them to try adding Read Attributes
permission and they refused to modify root drive permissions for the
Network Services account becasuse of security concerns. This is
understandable to me, especially as there is little or no info on msdn
about this issue (that I have been able to find at least).

As a work-around, what I do is use FTP to create any needed
directories before uploading a Custom Module, skin, etc.. and then
rely on the DNN Installer to fill in all the files. So for example,
when installing a custom module I peek inside the .DNN file to see
what folders it needs, and then create them myself. Then when the DNN
installer goes to install that package, it sees the directory already
exists and so doesn't try to create it, and so does not crash.

Didn't mean to make this so long... hope it helps!

kevinharder-ga :
    Thank you for the answers! I tried earlier to create a child
portal from the ftp. And I named the directory the number it was
assigned in the database. For example child number one would be 12. So
the folder under Portals would be called 12. But after making all the
necessary additions to the Portals table when I try to view my child
portal I get an IIS error!

Now what?!

Alex,
Would it be possible to post the IIS error message you received? 

When you add a new portal, whether it be child or parent, it should
increment the PortalID column by one using a SQL identity column.  So
the child PortalID would be 12 only if you have already used
PortalID's 0-11.

Also, when you create a new subportal-only, DNN will try to create a
NEW directory in your IIS application root with the name of the child
portal.  So for example if you created a new child portal with a name
of www.MyDomain.com/MyChildPortalName then DNN would create a new
folder at:  <DNN_ROOT>\MyChildPortalName.  I'm guess this is why you
are getting the IIS error....

Since DNN can't create directories on your hosted server (and mine),
you will need to create both folders (one with the child portal name
in the root, and one with the PortalID in the /portals folder).

My host made the following changes and now all the Read Only
attributes are turned off. Here is his email below. Could it be that
the way my host sets up their folders for a shared environment that is
preventing this from working correctly?!

Hi,

Instead of setting the user network permissions on the
e:\html\domains\danceretailers.com\wwwroot folder, I set it on the
e:\html\domains\danceretailers.com and you should be set. We cannot go
up any further than that. If you are still having problems, you will
have to contact the dotnetnuke developers and have them fix their code
so these kind of permissions are not needed to be set.

Now this is the final answer that my host gave me:

Ok,

I worked on this for about an hour setting permissions, unsetting
permissions, setting for Network, NetworkSerices, and our IIS_WPG user
that also allows access with .NET and I cannot get it to work.

I set permissions for the danceretailers.com folder, the wwwroot
folder and I just cannot get it to work. I am sorry to say that we are
not able to support this. I cannot set permissions any higher than the
danceretailers.com folder.