ASP Frequently Asked Questions

What is ASP?
ASP (Active Server Pages) is a form of CGI scripting on a web server. ASP resides as a number of .DLL files that are installed with Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 2.0 and greater. The ASP parsers are also installed with Microsoft Personal Web Server.
A nice introduction to ASP (and ASP.Net, the next version of ASP) can be found on 4GuysFromRolla
What what can I do with ASP?
Your biggest limit is your own knowledge and creativity. Anything that you can do with Windows, you can script ASP (and, more functionally, ASP.Net) to do, including:
  • transfer and manipulate files.
  • connect to a database.
  • send emails.
  • process payments.
  • set up a forum.
  • run a gallery.
  • hold an auction.
  • list classified ads.
What do I need to get started with ASP?
Two things:
  1. A server supporting ASP and ASP.Net (this means a Windows server), running IIS. You can run ASP on a Windows 98 machine with PWS as a testing environment, but, it is extremely insecure!
  2. A development environment. There are a couple of more expensive options: Microsoft's Interdev (the most common, and most used) or Borland's UltraDev. There is also a free environment that is quite functional: The Web Matrix Project