I did just did that newbie mistake of setting my Login destination in Site Settings to a new page that didn't have an Account Login module added or any other module added. None of the tricks like adding "?ctl=login" to the home page address have worked. I am on a Mac and don't have the tools or experience to edit the SQL database.
The notion struck that I could edit the administration skin in Dreamweaver on my Mac by adding a SIGNIN module string into the source code of the ContentPane table cell and upload the skin by FTP. The hope there was that it would add that sign in to the page and I'd be able to log on and save myself.
When I uploaded the page the live site brought up the admin page with a default skin, it didn't accept my revised skin. I had duplicated that ascx file on the server, so I deleted the skin I uploaded and my site relinked with the original skin okay. I don't know if it's because I had Mac line returns going on, or if the SQL database locks on the skin file that was uploaded through the web interface in spite of renaming it. If it's a Mac line ending thing I can edit the file in raw HTML in BBEdit with Windows line endings, but I'd like to get some feedback before I stomp something badly. What it probably is happening is that I can't log on to refresh the database, so that makes me wonder if there's a way to do a force refresh.
The main thing is if it's possible or a good idea to add a module manually to the local skin ascx file and upload it to get a module on that skin file on the server. I have an idea that even if there would have been a Text/HTML module on that page I would have been okay. Man am I stuck until I figure something out, DNN is absolute aces but I fell in a bad hole here.