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Top 10 ASP.NET Resources
Use this guide to help you find the best ASP.NET information on the Web
by Jonathan Goodyear, MCSD, MCP, CLS

The move to ASP.NET and the rest of the .NET Framework is a big one. Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone. Despite the fact that ASP.NET hasn’t even been released yet, a legion of Web sites out there offers great information to get you started and help you to solve any issues you might encounter. Here’s my list of the 10 best sites on the Web to get ASP.NET information.

10) The Code Project (www.codeproject.com/dotnet/): This site does a tremendous job with its ASP.NET content. And you also get information about related languages and technologies, such as VB.NET, C#, and ADO .NET. They break the topics out by category, and frequently update the articles with corrections, clarifications, and new information as it becomes available to the public.

9) 4GuysFromRolla (www.4guysfromrolla.com): This industry stalwart with the funny name delivers in the category of ASP.NET, covering everything from getting started with the technology to advanced topics, such as performance monitoring and screen scraping. These guys also have a companion site (www.aspfaqs.com) that is a great Q&A supplement to the material on their main site.

8) The 411 ASP.NET Directory (www.411asp.net): This site is the .NET sibling of The ASP Resource Index (www.aspin.com). The thing I like about this site is that the content is organized in a hierarchical categorization scheme similar to the one Yahoo! uses. I don’t have to rely on a quirky search box to look for what I need (although it does have one). Users can rate stuff here, but there doesn’t seem to be enough interest in this feature to make the ratings as useful as those on Amazon.com.

7) .netWire (www.dotnetwire.com): The place to go if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of the whole .NET world. Links to code samples are posted here, but the real value lies in the press releases and other "need-to-know" information typically not available on other .NET sites.

6) csharpindex.com (www.csharpindex.com): Wait a minute! I thought this was a list of ASP.NET resources? You’re right, but I felt compelled to include this site, because it has one of the most useful features I’ve seen in a long time. You can use the free “colorCode” service (implemented as a Web Form) to translate your C# code into nicely formatted and color-coded HTML. Almost everything is configurable. I have used the service often to prepare code snippets for my angryCoder eZine (www.angryCoder.com). And oh yeah, the site offers links to ASP.NET demos too.