ASP.NET is a unified Web development model that includes the services necessary for you to build enterprise class Web applications with a minimum of coding. ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework, and when coding ASP.NET applications you have access to classes in the .NET Framework. You can code your applications in any language compatible with the common language runtime (CLR), including Microsoft Visual Basic and C#. These languages enable you to develop ASP.NET applications that benefit from the common language runtime, type safety, inheritance, and so on.

ASP.NET is a server-side Web application framework designed for Web development to produce dynamic Web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, web applications and web services.

ASP.NET is an amazing technology to use to build Web solutions! When ASP.NET 1.0 was introduced in 2000, many considered it a revolutionary leap forward in the area of Web application development. ASP.NET 2.0 was just as exciting and revolutionary, and ASP.NET 4 is continuing a forward march in providing the best framework today in building applications for the Web.

The important advantages ASP.NET offers over other Web development models:

• ASP.NET drastically reduces the amount of code required to build large applications.
• With built-in Windows authentication and per-application configuration, your applications are safe and secured.
• It provides better performance by taking advantage of early binding, just-in-time compilation, native optimization, and caching services right out of the box.
• The ASP.NET framework is complemented by a rich toolbox and designer in the Visual Studio integrated development environment. WYSIWYG editing, drag-and-drop server controls, and automatic deployment are just a few of the features this powerful tool provides.
• Provides simplicity as ASP.NET makes it easy to perform common tasks, from simple form submission and client authentication to deployment and site configuration.
• The source code and HTML are together therefore ASP.NET pages are easy to maintain and write. Also the source code is executed on the server. This provides a lot of power and flexibility to the web pages.
• All the processes are closely monitored and managed by the ASP.NET runtime, so that if process is dead, a new process can be created in its place, which helps keep your application constantly available to handle requests.
• It is purely server-side technology so, ASP.NET code executes on the server before it is sent to the browser.
• Being language-independent, it allows you to choose the language that best applies to your application or partition your application across many languages.
• ASP.NET makes for easy deployment. There is no need to register components because the configuration information is built-in.
• The Web server continuously monitors the pages, components and applications running on it. If it notices any memory leaks, infinite loops, other illegal activities, it immediately destroys those activities and restarts itself.
• Easily works with ADO.NET using data-binding and page formatting features. It is an application which runs faster and counters large volumes of users without having performance problems

In short ASP.NET, the next generation version of Microsoft’s ASP, is a programming framework used to create enterprise-class web sites, web applications, and technologies. ASP.NET developed applications are accessible on a global basis leading to efficient information management. Whether you are building a small business web site or a large corporate web application distributed across multiple networks, ASP.NET will provide you all the features you could possibly need and at an affordable cost i.e. free!

SOURCE: INTERNET