If you're going to be running 25 to 300 sites, I don't think MSDE will be the answer...

Most companies that offer shared hosting also offer dedicated or semi-dedicated hosting services - and I don't think the prices differ that much between MySQL and SQL Server.

And by the way, DotNetNuke 3 does do friendly URL's.

>

Shared hosting would not work for this solution. There are already over 25 websites up and running and there will be over 300 once all are up. Most likely the sites will be spread across 10 or more servers when all are complete.
>
>I do prefer MS SQL over MySQL but these sites will likely be low income for the first few years and we want to keep costs low starting out. I'm starting to consider using the MS SQL light (MSDE?) though if I'm going to use DOT NET NUKE.
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>Currently I've been playing with E107 and Mambo for content management as I already have the MySQL database in place. But they are in PHP and while I know it... I can't stand it.
>
>There is also a bigger problem with most CMS's in that they don't do friendly URL's except under Apache. So I don't write my own CMS or use DotNetNuke I could end up with PHP, MySQL, and Apache solution which is pretty much my worst nightmare. :)
>
>Does anyone have any experience with Rainbow Portal in .NET?
>
>Greg
>
>>Just curious - why MySQL? I believe you can purchase a MySQL Provider for DotNetNuke - but out of the box, only SQL Server is supported - and SQL Server fits the bill for me. There are a number of excellent hosting companies that offer ASP.NET/SQL Server shared hosting packages.
>>
>>>Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for!
>>>
>>>
>>>>>Does anyone know of open source CMS (content management systems) for ASP.NET??? What I'm really looking for is something like PHP-Nuke but written in ASP.NET or ASP that will run on IIS. I would still want to use MySQL for the database backend.
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks.
>>>>>
>>>>>Greg
>>>>
>>>>Greg,
>>>>This might be of help:
>>>>www.dotnetnukes.com
>>>>
>>>>Oops.
>>>>www.dotnetnuke.com
>>>>
>>>>Extra s still gets you to a related site:)
>>>>Cetin