1. What is ASP?
Active Server Pages (ASP), also known as Classic ASP, is a Microsoft's server-side technology, which helps in creating dynamic and user-friendly Web pages. It uses different scripting languages to create dynamic Web pages, which can be run on any type of browser. The Web pages are built by using either VBScript or JavaScript and these Web pages have access to the same services as Windows application, including ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) for database access, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for e-mail, and the entire COM (Component Object Model) structure used in the Windows environment. ASP is implemented through a dynamic-link library (asp.dll) that is called by the IIS server when a Web page is requested from the server.
2. What is ASP.NET?
ASP.NET is a specification developed by Microsoft to create dynamic Web applications, Web sites, and Web services. It is a part of .NET Framework. You can create ASP.NET applications in most of the .NET compatible languages, such as Visual Basic, C#, and J#. The ASP.NET compiles the Web pages and provides much better performance than scripting languages, such as VBScript. The Web Forms support to create powerful forms-based Web pages. You can use ASP.NET Web server controls to create interactive Web applications. With the help of Web server controls, you can easily create a Web application.