Yes, the master not only needs the permission to attach, but needs to be configured properly physicaly. "Some other method" is actualy the default. Changing the connection string to an IP address. Unless you have permission to create new databases (very unlikely), your MDF file in that scenario won't be used. First, you will need to get the information form your host on what kind of environment they support. There are as many configurations as there are hosts, so we can't give you step by step tips without more info :) The most likely scenario, is that your host created a database for you already, with an IP address, a user name and a password. Using this and SQL Management Studio, you will be able to make a script from your MDF, and run that script on the server to recreate the database. On top of that, if you use Membership, you will be able to use the ASP.NET Configuration tool from within VWD to configure membership on the server (this works even in SQL Server 2000).