ASP.NET is a new programming framework from Microsoft for developing next generation web Applications. It is a framework built on the Common Language Runtime and introduces a new paradigm to server-side Web development.

There are several advantages that ASP.NET offers, such as:

Performance: The code written in ASP.NET is compiled, so straight ahead it is a performance boost. The code written in .Net Framework is complied in Common Language Runtime. ASP.NET can take advantage of early binding, just-in-time compilation, automatic resource optimization, runtime profiling, automatic memory management, enhanced exception handling, and caching services, right out-of-the-box, this improves the performance before you start coding. A problem with Web sites performance is with data-access. For example, a database table will spend the majority of its execution time connecting to the database and querying the information.

ASP.NET comes with a data-caching module. This data-caching module allows you to specify what data on an ASP page to cache and on what conditions to empty the cache and re-query the data-store.

ASP.NET ships with Performance Counters which system administrators can use to gather application metrics. They can be used to measure the performance of either a single instance of an ASP.NET application or all ASP.NET applications combined on a computer

Tool Support : Now you can drag-and-drop web controls like you do VB controls, double-click and write the server code for the control. ASP .NET supports XCOPY deployment that requires no registration or stopping of the server, supports dynamic DLL updates and extensible configuration using XML files.

Flexibility. Because ASP.NET is based on the Common Language Runtime, the power and flexibility of that entire platform is made available to web application developers. The Common Language Runtime's Base Class libraries, Messaging, and Data Access solutions are all seamlessly accessible from the web. ASP.NET is also language-independent, so you can choose a language that best applies to your application, or partition your application across many languages. Further, Common Language Runtime interoperability guarantees that your existing investment in COM-based development is preserved when migrating to ASP.NET.

ASP.NET currently offers built-in support for three languages, C# (pronounced "C Sharp"), Visual Basic, and JScript.

ASP.NET is different from ASP in two major ways:

ASP.NET offers several programmatic enhancements over ASP, such as, Compiled ASP.NET Scripts, Caching: Post-Back Forms: Server Controls, and Deployment. ASP.NET offers a change in programming fundamentals. ASP followed procedural pattern of creating pages.(e.g.; lets take a form which takes user information and then authenticates the user. Here we would generally create a form, which receives the user information in the first page, and then in the second page we would process the user collection for authentication in ASP.) ASP.NET is a new programming framework from Microsoft for developing next generation web Applications. It is a framework built on the Common Language Runtime and introduces a new paradigm to server-side Web development