Book excerpt: What is this book about? This hands-on guide teaches you how to build custom ASP.NET Web sites from the ground up. An expert team of authors uses their extensive ASP.NET programming experience to give you hands-on instruction in the best way to create Web sites with ASP.NET and C#. This completely updated edition features new examples, and all code is written and tested for ASP.NET version 1.1. What does this book cover? Here are some details on what you'll discover in this book: Fast ASP.NET site construction using Microsoft’s new, free Web Matrix tool How to install and configure ASP.NET Basic programming principles for C#, such as variables, control structures, and procedural programming Techniques for applying these principles as you develop ASP.NET pages The minimum amount of object-oriented programming necessary to work successfully and efficiently with ASP.NET Key differences between ASP.NET 1.0 and 1.1, how to use the examples in this book with either version, and how to move from 1.0 to 1.1 Techniques for extending your ASP.NET sites to incorporate related tools and technologies, such as using ADO.NET for data source access, Web Services for inter-site communication, and Server Controls to facilitate code maintenance and reuse How you can make your ASP.NET site production-ready through proper debugging, optimization, and security Who is this book for? This book is for beginners who have no previous experience with ASP, C#, XML, object-oriented programming, or the .NET framework. A little knowledge of HTML is useful, but not essential. All the concepts you need to create dynamic ASP.NET Web sites are presented and explained in full.