Active Server Pages (ASPs) are Web pages that contain server-side scripts in addition to the usual mixture of text and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) tags. Server-side scripts are special commands you put in Web pages that are processed before the pages are sent from your Personal Web Server to the Web browser of someone who's visiting your Web site. . When you type a URL in the Address box or click a link on a Web page, you're asking a Web server on a computer somewhere to send a file to the Web browser (sometimes called a "client") on your computer. If that file is a normal HTML file, it looks exactly the same when your Web browser receives it as it did before the Web server sent it. After receiving the file, your Web browser displays its contents as a combination of text, images, and sounds.

You can run ASP on your own PC without an external server. To do that, you must install Microsoft's Personal Web Server (PWS) or Internet Information Services (IIS) on your PC.

If you are serious about using ASP, you should have at least Windows 98, Second Edition.

If you are really serious about using ASP, you should go for Windows 2000.

More ASP facts available are

1. See www.learnasp.com/hosts for links to FREE hosts if you want to develop a site on the WWW web without spending money; Commercial hosts are also listed to serve busy corporate sites you build.
2. It is part of IIS (Internet Information Server) which takes care of all the non-asp chores (FTP, serving plain HTML, serving video). IIS  is also FREE with NT4 or Win2000.
3. It can be purchased for Unix, Notes/Domino, Novell servers and other platforms.  Two vendors currently offer this: Chilisoft and Halcyonsoft (see www.learnasp.com/hosts for links to them)

Are you one of those unlucky folks who gets cryptic errors or has trouble Installing Asp? Just join http://www.asplists.com/asplists/aspinstall.asp and submit your problem by email. Others will help you!

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