If you do not have a JSP capable web-server or application server, the first step is to download one.  There are many such servers available, most of which can be downloaded for free evaluation and/or development.  Some of them are:

Blazix from Desiderata Software (1.5 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)
TomCat from Apache (Approx 6 Megabytes)
WebLogic from BEA Systems (Approx 40 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)
WebSphere from IBM (Approx 100 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)

Servlets are Java technology's answer to CGI programming. They are programs that run on a Web server and build Web pages. Building Web pages on the fly is useful (and commonly done) for a number of reasons:

• The Web page is based on data submitted by the user. For example the results pages from search engines are generated this way, and programs that process orders for e-commerce sites do this as well.
• The data changes frequently. For example, a weather-report or news headlines page might build the page dynamically, perhaps returning a previously built page if it is still up to date.
• The Web page uses information from corporate databases or other such sources. For example, you would use this for making a Web page at an on-line store that lists current prices and number of items in stock.

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology based on the Java language and enables the development of dynamic web sites. JSP was developed by Sun Microsystems to allow server side development. JSP files are HTML files with special Tags containing Java source code that provide the dynamic content.

The beginning and intermediate-level tutorials on this page are based on the second edition of Marty's book Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, and have been tested by Marty in live training courses in the US, Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Japan, Mexico, and the Philippines. Also see the training materials home page for advanced servlet and JSP tutorials, Jakarta Struts tutorials, Apache Tomcat tutorials, JSF tutorials, Java 5 & Java 6 tutorials, and tutorials in Chinese and Japanese.

JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology is the Java platform technology for delivering dynamic content to web clients in a portable, secure and well-defined way. The JavaServer Pages specification extends the Java Servlet API to provide web application developers with a robust framework for creating dynamic web content on the server using HTML, and XML templates, and Java code, which is secure, fast, and independent of server platforms. JSP has been built on top of the Servlet API and utilizes Servlet semantics. JSP has become the preferred request handler and response mechanism. Although JSP technology is going to be a powerful successor to basic Servlets, they have an evolutionary relationship and can be used in a cooperative and complementary manner.