Rating: 
Summary: Rush To The Nearest Bookstore And Get This book!
Review: This book will definitely give you a headstart into coding ASP.NET. All new concepts are explained clearly. The lessons gave me such a sense of learning that I can't wait to finish all 23 chapters in a day. If you have prior exposure to Classic ASP programming, this is defintely the book to start tackling ASP.NET. The author says, this book is suitable even for those with no programming exposure. I believe you will need a little exposure to programming concepts, such as data types, control structures and most importantly, familarity with HTML to get the best out of this book. If you are an intermediate ASP coder, you will find yourself making progress comfortably. There is even a section at the end of every chapter that compares Classic ASP and ASP.NET. You will not loose your compass as you navigate ASP.NET. So, the VERDICT is, GET IT NOW!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book.
Review: This book is great. There is one thing, however, that one should note before purchasing it. I found it good because I am very familar witht he subject. I could not say how it would be if I did not already know ASP.NET. All and all though, it is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent ASP source
Review: As I perused through a few books on the subject of ASP, I decided to buy this one. This book has turned out to be the greatest help, and I believe that programmers of all skill levels will benefit from the information and examples contained within. Great job.
Rating:
Summary: Only book you'll need for ASP.NET, VB.NET, C# and XML!!!
Review: I was waiting for this book since long and believe me, it wasworth waiting! This book didn't disappoint me at all. I have finished majoiry part of this book and find each chapter extremely easy to grasp. Apart from ASP.Net, this book also covers VB.net, C# and XML from groundup. So if you have some programming knowledge but lack prior experience with Visual Basic, ASP or XML, it does not matter. You can jumpstart with this one and learn all these new skills. Majority of '21 days' series books haven't disappointed me in the past but I guess this one is THE BEST! Though all chapters in this book are thorough and precise, Some of the outstanding chapters are: Day 10(ADO.NET), Day 11 and Day 12(begining XML and XML with Databases), Day 20 (Debugging) and Day 21 (Security). Overall, a SUPERB BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: Very tricky for starters
Review: I'm not sure what to rate this book yet so I'm giving it a 3. I'm about 2 days in and couldn't get past the day 1 exercise. I thought I'd post here incase anyone experienced the same.
I had a number of problems getting the first page to load (listing 1.2). It ended up being a problem with my .NET SDK install. Anyway the fix for this is to goto the command prompt and go to c:\windows\microsoft.net\v1.1.4322\
Then run:
aspnet_regiis -r
This will re-register all your .NET dlls.
Other then the huge headache of getting the first lesson working I'm looking forward to getting deeper into the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Code doesn't work in some cases
Review: I'm a big fan of Sams Teach Yourself in 21 days series, but I have to admit that this book isn't worth it. It skips around and doesn't explain in detail what the code is trying to do. Having bought Sams Tech Yourself ASP 3.0 in 21 days, I was very pleased with this book. But when I purchased Sams Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days (2nd Edition), I left, very disappointed. I wanted to learn both VB.Net and C#.Net. The book advised it would explain both, but this is not true at all. While it has sample code in both languages, a lot of the time, it used VB.net. And when it covers C#.Net, the code doesn't work half of the time. I only wish Sams looked more closely before they allowed this book to be published.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but somewhat useful book
Review: Chris Payne seems to know what he's talking about with ASP.NET development. Not knowing his audience is the major flaw. Is this book aimed at professional developers with lots of experience or beginning developers trying to learn ASP.NET?If I were to answer this questions as a reader, I'd say that it doesn't help either kind of developer very much. The book seems to lack focus and consistency with regard to its target audience. As an example, how is a beginning reader going to feel when he has all the essentials of VB.NET, C#, and all the object orientation and server objects dumped on him in two chapters (days 3 and 4)? How about Day 6 in which user controls and custom controls are dumped on the reader without adequate explanation and Chris keeps saying things like "this code is standard" (p. 197) while avoiding writing any useful or jargon-free explanation? On the other hand, this book isn't appropriate to an experienced developer either. Lots of items will be boring to an experienced developer. There is often lack of detail or theoretical explanation. Then there are standard things that will bore the experienced developer. Here's the standard, simplified explanation of objects again. There's the explanation of loops and if statements to skim over. The "Hello World" example in Day 6 that makes things complicated, yet uninteresting seems especially inappropriate. Visual Studio.NET is barely mentioned, although I suspect most ASP.NET devopers will be using it. Many practical issues (deployment, caching, etc.) just get ignored or glossed over, also. In the end I found this book frustrating since it doesn't serve either a beginning or an intermediate/advanced developer very well. If you're serious about learning ASP.NET you can learn it from this book, but the author hasn't done the work for the reader to make it well-paced, easier, or more enjoyable. You'll feel like you're pushing through sludge as you work through this book. It does present the material it claims to, but you get the feeling that this book was written quickly, with little sympathy for the reader, and no time for revisions. It's a loss for the reader that it was written this way since the author seems to know his stuff. Now if he could only explain it a little better.
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