In the next couple of weeks we are preparing a tutorial on Active Server Pages which you will be able to follow and simply learn the new technology. Because Active Server Pages(ASP) allows all our development to be done on your computer at home, we thought it would also be nice to actually make your applications live on the Internet.
This is why we set about searching for a hosting service which will allow you to do just that. DomainDLX give you the ability to place your ready and waiting Active Server Page websites to be hosted across the Internet. As you will learn, you cannot use a normal hosting provider such as Geocities or Tripod, you have to use one who support Windows NT and Internet Information Server which allows your ASP pages to run correctly. ASP stands for Active Server Pages.
So whats on offer at DomainDLX. Well for starters they give you 15 Megabytes of webspace which is plenty. They support the newer Active Server Page platform which is Internet Information Server 5.0 (IIS 5.0). This allows you to program the features of ASP 3.0. Dont worry about this at the moment.
They also provide you the ability to use Microsoft Access Databases. This is where you can use the true power of ASP and database certain elements of your website. This is something Active Server Pages are really good at. The nice folk at DomainDLX also give you the ability to run a component called ASPEMail which can be used to get data from a form and send it to any specified e-mail address. Ideal for your contact forms.
When you are ready to upload your pages to the website, you can use a standard FTP client (File Transfer Protocol) to place your webpages live.
Ok, so why is this service free? DomainDLX allow you to do all this because on your webpage you have to place a couple of small advertising banners on your page. This is not a bad thing because it does give you the ability to host your site free of charge and the power of Windows NT is not exactly cheap in the commercial world. They have to balance this out some how. Most websites now contain advertising banners so people are pretty use to them now.
Most functions of ASP are fully working without too much limitation. It's ample to get you started and when you are comfortable and want to unleash all the power of ASP later, then moving your applications (web applications) to another ISP would not be a problem. Who knows, DomainDLX may provide some alternative solutions which are really reasonably priced.
You can't use your own domain name at the moment, but simply you can use one provided. You get a choice but I went for http://home.domaindlx.com/beginners.
So thats it really. If you are going to follow our forthcoming tutorial on ASP then this is the right route for you to take. It will give you a starting point in building your first web application using Active Server Pages.
To sign up, hop along to:
http://www.domaindlx.com/index.html
The click on the Registration Form menu item to signup. It will take approx 24 hours for your account to be setup. So do it now!
Lookout for our up and coming tutorials on Active Server Pages. If you cannot wait, take a look in our Links section to find more resources for ASP.
Please Note: DomainDLX have no relation to the workshop and are recommended because others have recommended them. We are not to be held responsible for anything which arise from using DomainDLX's services.
