Active server pages are web pages that contain server-side scripts in addition to text and the usual HTML tags. Server-side scripts are special commands you may put in web pages and which are processed before the pages are sent from the web server to the web browser. Active server pages run on a server. This means you must have a web-server that can handle active server pages. For all practical purposes it must be a Microsoft web server. Two choices are available to you: Internet Information Server (MS-IIS) or the MS Personal Web Server version 4.0. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE VERSION HAS TO BE 4.0. Earlier versions will not work. The presence of active server server-side scripts also means that unlike with regular html webpages, you can't just preview a page in your browser. So, to develop and test ASP pages you have to make your own home computer into an internet server. This sounds more complicated than it actually is. This page describes which steps you have to take to give your computer server capabilities.

Microsoft provides "Personal Web Server 4.0," (PWS) a web server that enables you to run ASP pages free of charge on its website (microsoft.com). The good news is that you won't have to pay for it, the bad news is that it is very large (around 30MB) and will take a while to download.

If you have a Zip drive then you can give an empty Zip disk to your instructor, who will return the disk to you with the PWS files.

If you are running Windows 98, then you may already have access to PWS. Newer versions of Win98 have PWS either as an installation option, or as an application that you can start from the Control Panel. Make sure to check that it is the correct version of PWS.

Windows NT Server comes with Internet Information Server, which will run ASP (in fact, it runs the pages much better than PWS). It is unclear how Windows NT client handles PWS.

If you do not have access to a zip drive, or Windows 98/NT, then you have to download PWS. In its infinite wisdom, Microsoft is making it next to impossible to download PWS. Luckily, Netscape (of all companies) provides shareware, and you can download PWS through Netscape's Netcenter. .

The following may no longer apply, and will be checked. Try installing it without worrying about Internet Explorer, and see if it works. Install IE if necessary.

Whichever means you choose to obtain your free copy of Personal Web Server, YOU MAY HAVE TO INSTALL MICROSOFT's INTERNET EXPLORER 4.01. You don't need to use IE after installing PWS, ASP will run perfectly well on a Netscape browser (after all, ASP is running on the server side). PWS can not be downloaded or installed without IE 4.0. The good news is that Internet Explorer 4.0.1 is available on the CD that is handed out by your instructor..

Once you have installed PWS, you can place ASP files under the Inetpub\wwwroot directory. PWS will automatically start running whenever you start up your computer. The PWS icon can be found on the right-hand side of the task bar. By double clicking on that or by starting Personal Web Manager through the Start menu you can see what the URL of your pages will look like on your computer. Under "Main Publishing" it will show you this URL. Let's say that this URL is "http:\\john-smith\." If you want to test an ASP page named cis8110.asp then you have to place this file in the Inetpub\wwwroot directory. Once you have placed it there you can view it in "http:\\john-smith\cis8110.asp" In other words, don't try to serve an ASP page by double-clicking on it, or by using the Open File menu option in your browser. This will not work!! NOTE: In the past semester about 25% of the students wasted time because they did not follow the instructions in this past paragraph, and thought that the pages were not working.