Minimum software needed to produce an ASP site?

What is the least expensive way to produce an ASP-based site?

[ambassador]

-------
Aug 2, 2003

I am considering producing an ASP-based shopping cart for a website and would like to know:

(1) What is the absolute least expensive way (i.e., ASP software needed) to produce a simple shopping cart based on ASP?

(2) Is using ASP just synonymous with using Visual Basic commands in an HTML page?
-------

[smokin]

1) the least expensive way = notepad (save as .asp file)
2) is similar to VB in that vbscript is used

[ambassador]

-------
Aug 2, 2003

That sounds great! How do I make a strictly HTML web page

(1) acknowledge and
(2) use

the ".asp" file?
-------

[TheDave]

The .asp file needs to be run server-side, so it needs to be hosted on an IIS (Internet Information Services) server. The server parses the file, executes the server side scripts, and sends the file to the client browser, as an ".asp" file which contains nothing but html (well, text at least - whether that text is "html" is up to you).

You can run your own IIS server under win2k (and I think XP but I have never used it that much), but you will need to install the IIS, which is on the win2k CD, and can be installed via Add/Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components