Well, it came time this morning to upgrade this Blog engine. I am continuing to use BlogEngine.Net, as it has all the features I was require.
Here is what I went through, and some tips and techniques to get around the issues I saw.
First, download the 1.6 source from here. In addition, download the 1.6.1 web version. Unzip both of these and place into folders where you can find them.
I started out by finding the install information for MySQL in the 1.6 source code and ran the appropriate script to upgrade the MySQL database for this new version. All the proper casing was used in this upgrade script, so there were no issues there. Then, you need to take the MySQLWeb.config file and replace the projects default web.config for that. Replace the connection string information with that belonging to your database information.
I also took this time to upgrade the MySQL Connector to the latest one. I downloaded this connector (version 6.2.3) and installed it onto my machine. Update the web.config to reflect the new connector.
Now it was time to fire up an ftp program and get to work.
Delete the entire "ExtensionManager" sub-folder in the App_Code folder on the server.
I manually uploaded and overwrite all root folders individually. I do not want any chance of having to figure out the permissions on my hosting server once again.
Once you are done, test it out.
Now, follow the advise on this page to upgrade to 1.6.1.
OK, now what?
Time to add ReCaptcha and AkismetFilter. I was using a custom installation of ReCaptcha with the previous version of BlogEngine, so I already had my keys.
Information for using ReCaptcha is here. I encountered an error after using 1.6.1 with the ReCaptcha. It was giving me a callback error through a javascript prompt. I resolved this by setting the logging setting of the ReCaptcha settings to 0. I have contacted BE regarding this.
I setup my comments for manual moderation and enabled AkismetFilter. Time will only tell how well this will block the SPAM.
Hope this helps someone.