I.9.1- Finding ASP-friendly ISPs

Finding ASP-friendly ISPs

ASP runs on Microsoft Windows servers, while the majority ofISPs still use Unix-based systems or an equivalent. While there are ASP clonesthat run on Unix or Linux, many people want to use the full spectrum of ASPfunctions (such as COM components and Windows services) on their sites. Thistends to rule out many traditional ISPs.

Two or three years ago, it was very difficult to find an ISPthat used Windows NT servers, and would allow you to install your owncomponents or make use of Windows services in your Web applications.Thankfully, the situation is changing fast, and there are now hundreds of ISPsthat do support ASP in full on Windows NT servers (predominantly Windows NT 4at the time of writing, but no doubt this will change fairly quickly as Windows2000 proves itself) – just check that they allow you to install your owncomponents before you sign up.

A search on InfoSeek (http://www.infoseek.com/) for ASP-enabled Windows NTbased ISPs (using the criteria '+asp +Web +hosting') returned 390 matches. Many of these offer ASP onWindows NT Server, plus support for applications such as SQL Server and others.Some of the sites found (at the time of writing) were:

Active Server (http://www.active-server.com/)

DataReturn (http://www.datareturn.com/)

IMCOnline (http://www.imconline.net/)

SiteCrafters Internet Services (http://www.sitecrafters.com/)

Softcom (http://www.softcomca.com)

Technocom plc (http://www.technocom.net/)

Virtualscape (http://www.virtualscape.com/)

There are also sites that allow you to search for ISPs basedof a whole range of criteria, such as Action Jackson(http://www.actionjackson.com/hosts) and Top Hosts (http://www.tophosts.com).