Creating an ASP.Net website on your computer?

Question

I was wondering if there was a way to create a local webserver on your own computer which uses ASP.Net? Sort of like WAMP for Microsoft technologies.

Answer 1

You can install IIS on your home computer, depending on which version of Windows you have. For example, Windows XP Home won't allow you to install IIS, but XP Professional does.

This Wikipedia article lists the Operating Systems where this can be installed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Information_Services

And this article describes setting up a development environment on XP. If you're using a different version of Windows, it's still basically the same process.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/Subversion.aspx?display=Print

Although it's probably just as easy to google "installing IIS"

One note, though. If your computer is not running a server operating system, then the version of IIS you get will have some limitations. The number of concurrent users is limited, so it's best to do this for development/testing and in small workgroup environments, but not suitable for a public website. For a website with a large number of users, you'll probably need to get a real server OS or have it hosted.

AND FINALLY

if you're just interested in developing on your PC, you don't necessarily need IIS installed. Just get Visual Web Developer Express and develop using it. It's free, and has its own built in web server (the Cassini server) for running the websites you're working on.

Answer 2

If you like WAMP i suggest you take a look at the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (http://www.microsoft.com/web/getstarted/). It helps with everything from IIS to ecommerce solutions - all on the .NET stack