InstantKB.NET connection string & key application settings
Once IIS is configured correctly and your InstantKB.NET database is installed the next step is to modify the InstantKB.NET database connection string to point towards the database we created in the previous step.
The web.config file contains several <appSettings> key values that you will need to update to ensure InstantKB.NET functions correctly. The Web.Config file can be found within the root of the InstantKB.NET web application folder. You should edit the web.config within Notepad or similar ASCII editor.
The only setting you'll need to update to ensure you can start using InstantKB.NET is the database connection string. There are other settings for additional functionality such as exception handling which we won't cover right now. All settings within the web.config offer further information within the inline comments.
This is very important!
By default InstantKB.NET is uses a trusted connection within the default connection string. This is great for local development however you may need to modify the connection string to use a specific SQL Server user account. This is shown below...
<add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString" value="SERVER=localhost;UID=username;PWD=password;DATABASE=InstantKB20;"/>
This should be updated to contain a valid connection string to your InstantKB.NET SQL Server database. A typical connection string consists of four parts which will all need to be updated to use your SQL Server connection details.
SERVER=TheSQLServerName
UID=YourSQLUsername
PWD=YourSQLPassword
DATABASE=TheForumDatabase
For example, say your forum database is called "InstantKB", installed on a remote server for this example lets say "SQL.MYDOMAIN.COM" and you have a dedicated SQL Server account with username "Jon", password "Bob". You would need to update the connection string as shown below to accommodate these details...
SERVER=SQL.MYDOMAIN.COM;UID=Jon;PWD=Bob;DATABASE=InstantKB;
Continue to "STEP 6. Testing your InstantKb.NET installation"...