Hi,

Untill recently I used a ODBC Connector to connect from (classic) ASP VbScript to MySQL (4.1).

I'm planning on migrating to ASP.NET 2.0 and still deciding on my database type. MS SQL Server seems to be the logic choice from the book. Using MS SQL Server adds considerable license costs to the project however. Is there a cheaper (low end) alternative, like access?

What exactly is the sqlexpress file?
Does anyone have any experience using ASP.NET, ADO.NET and mysql connector?
Is it possible to run the persistent session state on a mysql database?
Is it possible to run the user management on a mysql database?
Is it possible to run the personalization on a mysql database?

Thanks in advance.

1) You can use Access. There is a specific AccessDataProvider (althought its not mentioned in the book, its there)

2) SqlExpress is a lightweight version of SQL server and is basically free. Its designed to be portable like Access (eg you can push SqlExpress files up to a host like Access), but uses the same DB engine as SQL so you don't have to worry about using the Jet database engine that Access uses.

As far as MySql, there are a number of third party solutions availbel for connecting to MySql via .NET...just search google. Unfortunatly, I am not familiar enough with MySql to know if it can run the Membership and Personalization features of ASP.NET 2