Posted: Dec. 17, 2001

ASP.NET uses ISAPI to run on the Internet Information Server (IIS) in Windows 2000 Server. Not only does IIS host ASP.NET but the ISAPI filter mechanism also allows both ASP and ASP.NET to coexist on the same IIS server. (IIS can direct a *.asp page to ASP and a *.aspx page to ASP.NET.)

The configuration of ASP.NET is managed by information stored in XML-format in a configuration file (Web.Config).

The cache allows for improved performance of ASP.NET, as the most commonly requested pages would be served from the ASP.NET cache.

State management services for ASP.NET are provided by the ASP.NET state service.

The .NET Framework provides the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which compiles and manages the execution of ASP.NET code, and the class libraries, which offer prebuilt programmatic functionality for Web Forms, XML support, and exception handling.

ADO.NET provides ASP.NET with connections to databases.