The database connection can be made during the install process of DNN. There is no need to manipulate it in the web.config.

To get information about setting up DNN read DNN Platform Setup -- DNN Docs (dnncommunity.org)

Happy DNNing!
Michael

It errors with the following:

"

Server Error in '/' Application.

Runtime Error

Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".
 

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.
 

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

"

This is a very generic error, it just says that something is wrong but gives no specific information about the error itself. This is for security reasons that bad people don't find an attacking vector.

Either change the value for customErrors mode to "On" or "RemoteOnly" temporarily to get more specific information about the error, or start the website on the server itself (after adding an entry to the web server's url to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file). Or you find some information in the Log4Net files, but normally chances are bad with an HTTP 500 error.

But I would start doublechecking if you downloaded the right package and if all system requirements are fulfilled.

Happy DNNing!
Michael

One thing that could be hapenning its the read/write access. You need to enable read/write acess to the folders App_Data, Portals and Desktop Modules for sure! Some hosting providers set all folders to read only by default and DNN installation need this read/write permission. Regards.