I have downloaded the trial version of VS.NET 2008 and trial version of SQL Server 2005. I have a small home network, three PC's. I would like to develop an ASP.NET site and be able to get access to that web site from any PC in the house. Something like an "intranet".

I dont have money for web hosting right now, so, can I develop a web site that will have a database and web pages on my home network?

What would I need to make sure I "turn on" or set up properly so that I can do this - and do I need any other software other than what I have described above?

Thanks for any direction that anyone can provide!

-A-

What version of windows are you running?

Windows XP Professional can have IIS installed on it and you can then run a site off of that. However, if you are only running home edition, I'm not sure what you'd be able to do. There are some free hosting possibilities out there that might suit your needs.

-Peter
compiledthoughts.com

Sorry. I should have posted that! All machines are running Windows XP, latest SP and 2G of RAM on each of them.

But are they XP Home or XP Pro. That makes all the differences.

-Peter
compiledthoughts.com

OMG, my brain has been stolen from me.. "Pro". XP Pro. 2G RAM (each machine has), and sufficient drive space. All networked, I use one as a file server now but would like to have it as a DB server and web server - if possible. Are there settings, services, tweaks I need to do, so I can develop a test intranet in my home that can be accessed from any other PC in the house? Or do I need to purchase hosting?

In the windows installation options for XP Pro you can choose Internet Information Services as an installation option. To install after the fact you need to go through the add/remove programs control panel item and choose windows components. Once that's installed, you need to install the .NET framework so IIS will be set up with ASP.NET. If you already have that installed, you need to run the aspnet_regiis.exe program to "install" ASP.NET into IIS.

Once this is done, you can build sites and set them up as virtual directories in your installation of IIS. As long as all your machines are on the network and you don't have anything blocking incoming requests to the server (such as windows firewall) you should be able to see your sites.

As I mentioned, one of the few limitations to IIS on XP is that there is only one site. Every application you make has to live as a sub directory on that one site. Usually this is not a problem for internal things like you are doing though because there won't be a URL associated with your applications.

-Peter
compiledthoughts.com

Hi Peter,

I found ASPNET_REGIIS.EXE in my C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 directory. I went to Start > Run and tried to run that program but a DOS window popped up and it scrolled a lot of what looked to be parameter info. I am not able to stop the window and it automatically closes so I cant scroll up and see what it it asking for.

I know that IIS is installed because someone else told me to try to type the name of that server in a browser, which I have done, and this appears:


Under Construction
The site you were trying to reach does not currently have a default page. It may be in the process of being upgraded and configured.


Please try this site again later. If you still experience the problem, try contacting the Web site administrator.

So I am sure IIS is installed but getting ASP registered is my question now. In looking at that directory with Windows Explorer, I can see a lot of EXE's and other things that I am not sure need to be run also.

I dont know, maybe it all ran OK? How can I test if it did?

Thanks Peter,

Anthony

You can start a regular command window and then run the exe from there. You must supply arguments to tell the reg app what to do.

You can tell if ASP.NET is configured for IIS by looking at the properties window of your default web site. Go to the Home Directory tab of the site, click on "Configuration". You should see a whole bunch of ASP.NET file extensions like aspx, ascx, asax, asmx. The executable path for them should be the framework directory. This will indicate that the site is set up right.

Or you can just set up a virtual directory pointed to a asp.net site source and see if it runs. If you get the raw markup of an aspx file, you'll know for sure that it's not working yet.

-Peter
compiledthoughts.com

OK, all seems cool. I followed your directions and have ASP.NET installed and running. I created a simple abc.aspx page and in Notepad I added:

<asp:Literal ID="Literal1" runat="server" Text="Hello World!"></asp:Literal>

that I got from:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/List_of...world_programs

and did not get the raw source.

Now all I have to do is learn and develop the site I want.

Cool!

Thanks!

Anthony