You can develop and run ASP.NET applications entirely on a single development computer using Visual Studio .NET by running VS.NET in one process and IIS in another. It's important to understand that, from a programming point of view, running both on the same computer is essentially the same as developing on one computer and then installing and running your ASP.NET programs on a host half way around the world. It's just a lot easier and faster.
There's an option that is "still better" on the horizon - or maybe actually being shipped to customers when you read this. Soon you will be to use the built-in ASP.NET-enabled Web server that will be part of the next version of Visual Studio, currently code-named "Whidbey" by Microsoft. The IIS Web server that you can use now is the real, production version and, if there is an Internet or LAN connection to your computer, it's possible for others to access this IIS server too. The new "Whidbey" Web server is more secure because it can't be accessed remotely, and it shuts down when you close the Whidbey development environment for both security and to make your computer more efficient.
This tutorial will assume that you're using IIS with Visual Studio .NET on a single computer. You have to have the .NET Framework installed and IIS has to be started and running. IIS and Visual Studio .NET are available on XP Pro and all versions of Windows 2000.
