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As a Windows user, you have Internet Explorer installed by default, but I recommend you run at least version 5.5. You can check your version by selecting from the menu.
If your version of Internet Explorer is earlier than 5.5, you can download the latest version (version 6 SP1 as of this writing) for free from the Internet Explorer Website. Remember, although ASP.NET will work with older versions of IE, certain ASP.NET functionality works best with the latest version.
The Internet Explorer Website does not allow you to install a version of your choice; it permits you to download only the most recent version that’s available. Because the newest versions of Internet Explorer will include the latest patches, it’s a good idea to stick with what they give you.
To begin creating ASP.NET applications, you’ll need to install the .NET Framework and SDK. The .NET Framework includes the necessary files to run and view ASP.NET pages, while the .NET Framework SDK includes samples, documentation, and a variety of free tools.
The .NET Framework SDK also provides you with the ability to install MSDE, the free database server that you can use with this book. Once the .NET Framework and SDK are installed, little else needs to be done for you to begin working with ASP.NET. The .NET Framework is installed as part of the operating system if you’re lucky enough to be running Windows .NET Server 2003, in which case you can skip directly to installing the SDK. If not, you will need to download the .NET redistributable package, which is approximately 21 MB, and includes the files necessary for running ASP.NET applications.
To develop .NET applications, you also need to install the software development kit, which includes necessary tools along with samples and documentation. Be aware that the .NET Framework SDK is 108 MB in size—be prepared to wait!
Installing the .NET Framework before you install IIS will prevent your applications from working correctly.
The best method of acquiring the .NET Framework is to download and install it directly from the Web. To accomplish this, simply follow the steps outlined below:
Go to the ASP.NET support site at http://www.asp.net/ and click the Download link.
Click the Download .NET Framework Redist Now link. Remember, we will install the redistributable first, then we will install the SDK. The link will advance you to a download page.
Choose the language version of the install you want, and click Download.
When prompted, save the file to a local directory by choosing .
After the download is complete, double-click the executable to begin the installation.
Follow the steps presented by the .NET Setup Wizard until installation completes.
Now that you’ve installed the redistributable, you need to install the software development kit (SDK):
Go to the ASP.NET support site at http://www.asp.net/ and click the Download link.
Click the Download .NET Framework SDK Now link. The link will advance you to a download page.
Choose the language version of the install you want to use and click Download, as you did to download the redistributable.
When prompted to do so, save the file to a local directory by choosing .
After the download is complete, double-click the executable to begin the installation. Before you do, I strongly recommend closing all other programs to ensure the install proceeds smoothly.
Follow the steps outlined by the .NET Setup Wizard until installation completes.
The SDK will take slightly longer to install than the redistributable. Once it’s finished, check to see if it exists in your programs menu; navigate to .
Although little configuration needs to be done before you begin working with IIS, I’ll use this section to introduce some basic features and functionality within IIS:
Determining whether ASP.NET installed correctly
Determining where files are located on the Web server
Using localhost
How to start and stop the Web server
How to create a new virtual directory and modify its properties
Once IIS is installed on your computer, you can open it by selecting from the menu. The first task is to make sure that ASP.NET was integrated into IIS when you installed the .NET Framework. Although, logically, ASP.NET should install automatically because it’s a component of the .NET Framework, sometimes it doesn’t. Don’t let this alarm you—it’s a common occurrence and is addressed in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. You can determine whether IIS was installed correctly by following these steps:
Open IIS, if you haven’t already done so, and click on the + symbol next to your computer’s name.
Right-click and select .
Navigate to the tab. If default.aspx appears within the list, ASP.NET was installed correctly.
Another way to check whether ASP.NET installed correctly is by following these steps:
Figure 1.2. If the .aspx ISAPI Extension DLL appears within the Application Mappings menu, then ASP.NET was installed correctly.
Since I can imagine you’re dying to know what an ISAPI Extension DLL is, let me explain. You may know that a DLL is a Dynamically Linked Library, which is essentially a self-contained code module that any number of applications can draw on. When a Web server hosts a dynamic Website, page requests must be processed by program code running on the server before the resultant HTML can be sent back to the requesting browser (the client). Now, as was the case with traditional ASP, ASP.NET performs this processing with the help of its Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) extension DLL. ISAPI allows Web requests to be processed through the Web server by a DLL, rather than an EXE, as is the case with Common Gateway Interface (CGI) pages. This approach is advantageous because DLLs are much more efficient, and require far less resources and memory than executables. IIS uses the file extension of a requested page to determine which DLL should process the request according to the mappings shown in the screenshot above. So, we can see that pages ending in .aspx, .asmx, or .ascx, among others, will now be passed by IIS to the ASP.NET DLL (aspnet_isapi.dll) for processing. OK, enough of the tech-talk. Let’s get back to it!
If you’ve come to the conclusion that ASP.NET was not installed on your computer, you’ll have to install it manually from the command prompt:
Open the command prompt by selecting > , type CMD, and select .
Type the following command (all on one line) to install ASP.NET on Windows 2000 Professional, Server, or Advanced Server:
C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\ver\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
Or on Windows XP Professional:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\ver\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
In these commands, ver is the directory corresponding to the version of the .NET Framework you have installed.
Once ASP.NET is installed, close the command prompt and check again to confirm whether ASP.NET installed correctly.
If it still hasn’t installed, try visiting the Microsoft Knowledge Base for help.
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Created: March 27, 2003
Revised: June 18, 2004
URL: http://webreference.com/programming/asp_net/1
