Im new to the sequel server world so Ive never setup for a personal machine like this. Im working with a friend on a project and in order to get his project running on my laptop Im trying to understand how this stuff works. The website is dotnet framework2 and Asp.Net C# code. I dont know how to execute the web files to make them run as if they were on a server. With sql server running do you just type in the path to the file in the browser? When I tried that it gave me a bunch of XSL & XML issues. And double clicking the files did the obvious, they openned in Visual Studio. Im a newb at sequel and visual studio so if anyone can point me in the right direction for help or give some advice I would appreciate the help. Thanks!

I think that if you are not familar with setting up SQL server 05 you shouldn't do it yourself. And in this case you have to ask for help. The best decision is: get server from company which can setup it for you. link drop removed - is known as a company with featured tecnologies. They have been providing MySql 5.xx for quite long period of time and they are good in it. Ate the same tiime they have rich coise of web hosting services.

Newmo - He's asking about SQL Server and ASP.NET; the guy clearly wants to run a Microsoft technology infrastructure. MySql is irrelevant in this case.

Turbo PGT - What operating system are you running? You need Windows 200x Server or XP Pro to do what you want. If you want to run a local copy of the web site to understand how it works - and this has gotten pretty easy to do - you need two pieces of software.

Intern Information Services, or IIS, is Microsoft's web server; it's the MS version of Apache. It's what you need to execute web files, like *.asp and *.aspx pages, web services and the like. In IIS - you get to it by right clicking My Computer and selecting manage from the popup menu, under "Services and Applications" - you need to set up a web site and map it to wherever the folder on your hard drive where the files are stored. You only need to do that once, and it's pretty straightforward, although you can post questions about anything that has you stumped, then you can run the files by typing http://localhost.com/YourWebSiteName/FileName.aspx into your favorite browser.

SQL Server is the database that stores information. ASP.NET is a programming framework that lives under IIS and generally talks to the SQL database and then uses it to generate pages. Microsoft has done a pretty good job since SQL '97 of making it as easy as possible to set up and start using. It comes with some GUI tools, but for the most part it's there to support your site, and it'll be accessed and maintained through your site.

You can get SQL Server Express 2005 for free, legally, from Microsoft, and store up to 4 GB with it. You can also get Visual Web Developer Express 2005, again free from the source. That's the development environment and debugger for C# and ASP.NET, meaning the server-side markup. If you don't have an operating system that will run IIS, Web Dev comes with a "test server" that will run and debug your .net code, but not asp 3.0 with vbscript. It sounds like that's not something you want to do.

If you just want to poke around in the database and get a feel for how it works, go to Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2005 -> SQL Server Management Studio. That link points to MS's tutorial on using the program.

Forrest, thanks for all that info. Im still very much a beginner at the MS stuff but Ive developed on IIS before. I just wasnt aware I needed it when I had SQL server, which I do have installed already. I had a full copy from work for both VS and SQL 2005. And my copy of XP should have it on the disk.

Im using XP Pro currently. I do not have IIS put on that particular machine but apparently Im going to have to install it again. Once I have IIS isntalled and I run my website from the localhost directory will the sequel database connect to the website or will there be any DSN info I need to setup for the sequel db? Thats the specific part I really dont know much about still.

I appreciate the info though, it was very helpful! Thanks

You can use a DSN, but you don't have to ... or want to. If the site is C# 2.0, it probably uses a "data access layer" or DAL. This would be a class or a set of classes that talk to the database. You'll probably see this called on the individual aspx pages.

Inside the DAL, there will be code using the SqlClient namespace; SqlConnections, SqlCommands, SqlDataReaders, etc. You use a connection string to reach your database, and bypass a DSN.

public void CreateSqlConnection() 
 {
    SqlConnection myConnection = new SqlConnection();
    myConnection.ConnectionString = @
        "Persist Security Info=False;
        Integrated Security=SSPI;
        database=northwind;
        server=mySQLServer";
    myConnection.Open();
 }