thanks. that pretty much did the trick.
I braved the storm and rebuilt the portal component on my machine, and copied all files I had here to this old clients server. Basically, I had done their site so long ago I wasn't sure what was on their site and what I had as a backup. I barely recall how to configure things.
Now, I'm just stuck trying to figure out where request.application path gets it's info in desktopportalbanner.ascx since all of the tabs' paths are not pointing to the right place so I cannot admin the site.
Where do I find the info that builds the link for the tabs? I can't find it in the database, or any config files.