ASP.NET is the modern form of ASP. ASP.NET was introduced with Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 in 2001. ASP.NET is a complete makeover of ASP and introduces a new paradigm of Web development. ASP.NET covered upon the limitations of ASP and introduced several new features.

ASP.NET is programmable using any .NET language (VB.NET, C#, J#, JScript.NET, etc.). The .NET Framework languages are object oriented languages, supporting the full capabilities of a programming language as compared to scripting languages which are a subset of the actual language.

The ASP.NET pages are saved with the .aspx extension. The (asp_net.dll) component works along with IIS to parse, compile and respond to any requests for ASP.NET pages.

Some of the advantages that ASP.NET offers over classic ASP are:

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  Event based programming model

  
  


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  A vast library of pre-built controls

  
  


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  Ability to develop custom controls

  
  


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  Easy configuration and deployment

  
  


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  No machine/application restarts required on configuring new components

  
  


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  Improved application and session states

  
  


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  Allows separation of server-side code from HTML (a feature known as Code Behind)

  
  

The list can go on and cover the whole page or maybe more, but I will stop here as this is enough to give an idea to someone who has experience of working with classic ASP or with any other server-side technology. If you are a first timer, don’t worry if any of this doesn’t make any sense to you. You are lucky that you are stepping in at a time when things have become way much better and easy.