I am attempting the Try It Out exercise on page 652. When I attempt to move to the Security tab in the ASP Web Site Admin Tool, it responds back that there is something wrong with my connection and directs me to the Provider tab. If I then try to establish a single provider for all ASP features, it responds back with the following:

"Could not establish a connection to the database.
If you have not yet created the SQL Server database, exit the Web Site Administration tool, use the aspnet_regsql command-line utility to create and configure the database, and then return to this tool to set the provider."

I have ran this utility to create a database with a name of aspnetdb, but this made no difference in the behavior of the ASP Web Site Admin Tool in attempting to set web site security.

In the How it Works section following this exercise, the books states that a new Access database should be created and that having refreshed the files in Solution Explorer, I would see a new SQL Server Express database ASPNETDB.mdf in the directory App_Data.

This leads me to the question of what should be installed on my machine in order for this to work properly? The MS SQL Server components I have on my machine were placed there during the installation of an application that required a MS SQL Server database engine, so I don't know if everything that is needed does exist, or if I need to de-install/reinstall. Additionally, I am confused as to what the ASP Web Site Admin tool is looking for as a connection. Is it looking for Access or SQL Server?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated

I'm having the same problem. I used the Aspnet_regsql.exe to create the database on my server. I'm running Sql Server on a networked server. It created it fine but how do I get the page to associate with that DB? If you find a solution please post an update. Thanks

I have found a solution. Here is a Microsoft link that explains this. I use an external server so I had to modify a little bit. Just make sure that you have Sql Server Express edition or if you run your own server with SQL Server that you allow remote connection through the security settings.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952170

Feel free to post back any questions

I'm sorry. That last bit of information was how to configure the ASP.NET site administration Tool for sharepoint. I've been having a heck of a time due to a server that is connected to my network so it a little different for me. Here is a link to ASP.NET videos take a look at video's 9 and 10. Video 9 is about 18 minutes but does it right. Happy Coding

http://www.asp.net/learn/security-videos/