My site works fine on version 5.6.3. After I unzip the 6.1.5 upgrade, i get this error message from Firefox:
"Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete"
This is a copy of the live site installed on PowerDNN. I am using a different port (8081) locally. I tried to use the UsePortNumber value=true in web.config, but I get the same error message. I checked access to the database by logging in as the user in the web.config connections section. The only change I made to the database was to add the local host name to the portal alias table, but since it works with the 5.6 files, I suspect that the problem exists in the "DotNetNuke_Community_06.01.05_Upgrade.zip" file.
Can you help?

Did you "Unblock" the upgrade zip file before copying it to the web directory?

I'm a little confused about the port number. Did your 5.6.3 site work on PowerDNN prior to the attempted upgrade?

If the error is happening locally, where are you doing the upgrade? Is that local too?

A few more details on where you started and then what you did might help me understand.

Sorry for the confusion. Here is a more detailed explaination:
The live site is 5.6.3 on PowerDNN on the standard port 80. Before upgrading, I wanted to see the effects of the upgrade on my own test system.
I backed it up and downloaded it to my local system, which is Windows Server 2008, IIS 7, SQL Express 2008R2
I created a DB and new user for DB owner.
I restored the DB overwriting the contents and tested the users access to the DB by logging into SQL Management Studio using the new user name and password. I was able to successfullt access the DB.
I modified the web.config connection strings for the new user.
I extracted site backup using 7-Zip to the web directory.
I created a new web application in IIS. I bound it to port 8081 so as not to interfere with my default web site (which I use).
I added records to the portalias table for servername:8081.
The site works fine! It is still on 5.6.3. I backed up the web directories and database.

Upgrade to 6.1.5:
I downloaded the 6.1.5 upgrade and extracted it to the web directory using 7-Zip and overwriting files.
It is always at this point when I get the error in Firefox. "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete"
IE9 just says it cannot connect to the site.
I think if we trace exactly the upgrade does, it would lead to a solution.

As a suggestion, temporarily set the port back to 80 and turn off the default site. If you get the same result, the problem is not the port.

If going to port 80 results in the same problem. Make sure that the 6.1.5 upgrade extracted all of the files. To do this, right click on the zip file, select properties, and then click the button to unblock the file. Extract the upgrade files again and copy everything to your web directory. See if that fixes things.

I unblocked the upgrade zip file and extracted again; same result
I changed the port to 80; same result
I spoke to a tech at PowerDNN to see if anthing they did in the sites support history would have an effect on this, but they said it was OK. They said to disable iFinity URL Masters friendly URLs, which I had already done before starting the failed upgrades.
I even uninstalled ifinity url master, but it didn't help.

So ... 5.6.3 works fine using port 80 on your local site, but fails after upgrading to 6.1.5? Do I understand that correctly?

I would be tempted to go back to a 5.6.3 version that works on your site and then go through the upgrade again. I do think that disabling/uninstalling URL Master before you start the upgrade is a good idea. I would also check the Suggested Upgrade Path in the DotNetNuke Wiki:

05.05.01 05.06.04
05.06.04 06.00.02
06.00.02 06.01.03

So ... upgrade to 5.6.4, then to 6.0.2 and from there you can probably go to 6.1.5 (Note that the suggested upgrade path hasn't been updated for a while, so it probably doesn't know about 5.6.7 and 6.1.5).

I get the same error after extracting the 5.6.4 upgrade

I guess the good news is that this seems to be a more pervasive issue. These might be helpful:

http://www.bestwebsites.co.nz/dotne...rect-loop/
http://weblogs.asp.net/christoc/arc...cting.aspx

So, first check that the portalalias doesn't have a trailing /. Then check the trust level, and you can see for full trust in web.config. Then read those references more carefully for some other ideas. Hopefully something there will help.

Thanks Joe,
I finally was able to upgrade after resetting the file permissions (which is what you were implying when you told me to unblock the files), and by manually entering the install.aspx url to start the upgrade! (http://localhost:8081/Install/Insta...e=Install) I tried this after I viewed the DNN Creative video for manually upgrading Dotnetnuke.
Again, thank you very much! You have a very satisfied subscriber.
Robert Bailin