Question/poll for those starting ASP.NET..

[TestMan]

I'm very much interested in learning .NET because of its simplicity compared to comparable ASP code. But I'm just a beginner. I bought a book "Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 days" and it basis the entire learning process on that you have Windows2000 (not mentioned before buying the book, thanks) and that you have SQL Server 7.0 and Visual Basic to compile objects with.<BR><BR>All of which costs a lot of money. I could never afford this, so my question is if anyone else found this to be as daunting a task, or should I say expensive, as I have? Or is this the standard for learning these technologies?You need Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro to use ASP.NET. Realize that for the price of one of these two operating systems, you get ASP.NET, ADO.NET, the VB.NET/C# compilers, etc. for free. (The VB.NET/C# compilers shipping with the .NET Framework, which is free.)<BR><BR>Also, while the book may focus on MS SQL Server, you can use Access or even delimited text files, if you'd like.Mike, a cheap alternative is to just get an account with a web hosting company that offers .net, you get all the server software you need that way. If you go with a place like brinkster.com it is even free (although, if you read their message board it seems their servers are not quite working right). iHost.biz is $12/mo and you can use Access databases, SQL Server costs extra but you probably don't it.