What is ASP?
ASP stands for Active Server Page. Simply stated, an ASP web page has "code" on it that the web server runs before serving the page to a web browser. After the code is run the result is a simple HTML page that any web browser can display. [If you want to know more about HTML or are even interested in writing your own HTML pages check out the lessons at http://www.htmltutorials.ca/lesson1.htm or go to these tutorials at W3 Schools.]
By running code on the server before the page is sent to a browser it is possible to develop web pages that are capable of doing many things that a browser may not be able to adequately render or to interact with information sources in a way that a browser could not.
For instance, ASP web pages can interact with databases that display information selected on a previous page from a list of choices. The selections from the first page are carried to the ASP page which then interacts with the database to find the appropriate information. This information is then put into HTML format before it is sent to the requesting browser. The user sees exactly what he/she chose. The processing of the code that interacted with the database took place on the server. The user's computer and browser did not have to interact with the database or complex code that would slow the process down. (See Illustration)