After several months of trying, I’ve finally managed to setup a blog on my site. It wouldn’t have been that hard, if I wasn’t so locked on using .Text blog, unfotuntely .Text require the really expansive Ms Sql Server. I’m hosting this site on shared computer, so I don’t get the privilege to use MSDE, and shelling out for MS Sql Server would cost an arm & leg be quite expansive.

I wanted to use MySql since I got it for free, but .Text doesn’t support it. I wasn’t worried, after all, I’m a programmer myself, and a blog isn’t really that hard to do.

So I did one, using MySql and a nice little engine, if I say so myself, and just when I’m about done – with all the major stuff complete (Rss, CommentAPI, BloggerAPI, etc) and I’ve only error handling minor issues to work on – I uploaded the site to the production server, and then it all fell apart.

Non of the native .Net MySql providers managed to work on the production server. I tried SevenObjects’ MySqlClient, MySql.Net, Direct MySql etc, and nothing works. It all goes very well on my machine, but crach and burn fall apart when I’m trying it on the production server.

I’d to abandon my wonderful project, and decided to look for file storage solutions for a blog. While I was searching, I found dasBlog, which had everything I wanted:

• Free as beer.
• Free as speech – Not as important, but good anyway.
• Used .Net (And more importantly, C#, so I can easily read the code if I’ve to.)
• Didn’t require expansive additionl software.
• Highly customizable.
• Has support if I run into some trouble.

All in all, I’m very pleased with it. We are newly aquinted, but I’ve a feeling it’s going to be a wonderful friendship.

And last but not least, a really big thank you should go to Shay & Hagay from Mirshetet for helping me set up the site, I’d all sort of funky problems with permissions, and I’m their first customer that uses .Net, so it’s took a while to remove the rough edges. Nevertheless, they were nothing but gracious and friendly, even though I called them at weird hours during the holiday. Wonderful guys.