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Rating: 
Summary: Too many Typos and Errors to learn ASP.NET
Review: I am totally disappointed in this book. I was very anxious to learn ASP.NET and I wanted to find an inexpensive book to help me get started, but the only thing this book did was frustrate me with horrible examples. Almost every single example in the book contained an error. Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Dec 5 - Source code is finally available.
Review: I have the Sam's 21 Days book (...)and liked it very much. 21 Days, however, was too early to cover VisualStudio.Net (Beta 2). In fact there is only one brief mention of VisualStudio.Net or its Visual Interdev predecessor in 21 Days. VisualStudio.Net has defaults for project setup, configuration files, code-behind arrangement, file-naming, and many other items that are not covered in the 21 Days book. Many of these items are better covered in 24 Hours, BUT THE SOURCE CODE IS NOT YET AVAILABLE ON THE WEB SITE FOR 24 Hours!! (Many of the examples have lengthy code that is a nuisance to type from scratch.)This will be a very useful book once the code is available. Sep 28 edit - I talked to an editor and sales at Sam's. Source code was lost. Sam's person that got it from author is no longer there. Sam's is working on getting it. Nov 25 edit - STILL NO SOURCE CODE on the SAMS web site. I finally had a junior engineer type up the source code, so that I could have a couple of others do the course. Like the book, hate the typing. Dec. 5 - Email from SAMS today says source code is now available.
Rating:
Summary: Great Information but Poor Production
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It contained the basics of just about everything a beginner would want to know about .NET. Server controls, security, ADO.NET, web services, stored procedures, and more are all included, but be warned! Many of the typos will have you scratching your head, and the lack of information on configuration may leave you digging. For example, when they teach you about web services, they have you build a consumer for your web method and they say it's as simple as clicking a link to the local server in a web reference dialog. The problem? The link they mention apparently didn't make it to the release version, and in order to dynamically detect web services on your server (which is required for the lesson), you need to add a verb to a handler in the web.config file! In addition, almost every example has typos, most relating to a flagrant disregard for letter case. My other gripes are that the examples were VB.NET only not C# (though anyone with a basic understanding of VB and C# can easily convert most examples). The book also lacks important detail, but what can you expect with an introductory text? Despite the downsides, this book is everything I could hope for in an introductory ASP.NET text. It got ME up to speed quickly, and if you're willing to look up details and server configurations on the web or VS.NET documentation, then this book will suit you just fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Basic beginners fare
Review: Overall, I am not impressed with this book. By far, it is the least expensive of the current lot. However, getting a bargain is not always the best route. I would recommend plopping down a few more bucks for one of the other books than picking this one up. The book is not bad for a beginner's book, which is its intended audience. My problems with the book lie in a couple of areas: 1. Coding ASP.NET as if it were a new version of ASP - there is no real reliance on CodeBehind. The separation of code and UI is done strictly through functions in the ASP.NET page. This is the way most ASP.NET books do it, so this is not necessarily a showstopper. Learn to write code more like VB if you really want your ASP.NET to shine. This book will not teach you how.\ 2. Examples far more complex than they need to be - not sure if the author(s) needed to impress someone, or if they really believe ASP.NET is this difficult, but many of the examples approach things the hard way. My personal philosophy: a simple problem generally has a simple answer; a complex problem generally has a simple answer or a group of simple answers. The author(s) do not subscribe to this theory. 3. Not enough meat - this is more a comparison of this book and the competition. While there is some good material, the book is quite short. If it did what it did well, I would not see this as a downside, but it gets a bit bloated with code and misses the point. Still, I would rate the book about average. If price is your primary objective, you can get a good start with this book. If you can spend an extra $10, I would recommend the Sams 21 days book (+ $10) or the Beginning ASP.NET with {your language here} from Wrox. Either will give you a much better introduction.
Rating: 
Summary: OK for beginners, too many typos
Review: The overall coverage was OK for developers looking to get a glimpse of what ASP.NET is about. However, the publishing of the book was rushed and filled with typos. I downloaded the source code from the Sams web site to attempt to follow along with the examples in the book only to be disappointed with code that did not follow the examples in the book. Even with the typos and inconsistent downloaded code, the book gave me a general understanding of what ASP.NET was about. My next step is to purchase an ASP.NET book from Wrox.
Rating:
Summary: Good Beginner Intro
Review: This book has a few typos but if you can overlook those it is full of excellent examples for a beginner learning how to use ASP.Net. I liked it because the examples are complete, while there are at times better ways to do many of the processes that are featured the examples are written in a manner that assures you grasp the concept behind the process. For example on Web Form Server controls it shows the progression of converting an HTML form to a server controlled form handling the button click in the code behind then it goes on to show you how you would dynamically create that form with tr, td objects in the code behind. The book covers a lot of beginner information...server controls, validation, security, reading and writing text & binary files, email, debugging... pretty much all of the stuff you would use in a real world implementation of a conversion to ASP.Net. It even covers installation of a security certificate (which is not ASP.Net specific but very handy for beginners nonetheless). I think it is a very comprehensive beginners book and should be considered for anyone just starting out in ASP.Net. The book also gives some good information on getting your Visual Studio.Net set up and all of the examples are stepped through with the assumption that you are using VSNet for development. My favorite book is the ASP.NET Unleashed so I suggest you consider them both as you will work your way through this book quickly...
Rating:
Summary: Too much fluff
Review: This book has NO ANSWERS...well, at least not for any questions of substance. The Sams 24 Hours series is a major disappointment...just TOO superficial of a treatment of the real functionality required to create something.
I strongly suggest the Sams 21 Days series instead. A much better introduction and explanation of the necessary material
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Exceptionally New Here
Review: This is just another ASP.NET in Visual Basic book. Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days is better and showed up first, which kind of takes all the wind out of your sales doesn't it? Topics are covered in more detail. They both profess to teach you the basics in virutally the same amount of time--here 24 one-hour lessons, the other 21 one-hour lessons. I am extremely disappointed in the books that have come out thus far simply for the fact that the editors lead you to believe that FINALLY after all this time they've come out with a book that includes one of the powerful and newest tools in .NET...... that is, C#. The editorial description of this book says it has examples of VB and C#. There is indeed an honorable mention of C# on page 7... it simply says you can use it but for beginners you better stick with VB. I am still waiting for anything from Sam's or anyone that steps you through the C# aspect of this technology. I bought Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days as soon as it came out. It also professed to at least have a chapter on C#--chapter 4. Well, the exercises in the chapter dedicated to C# were in Visual Basic........ hello, is there anything wrong with this picture? I am going through the book and translating every exercise to C#, probably a better way to learn it anyway. Maybe all you publishers and authors have done me a favor by seriously falling short in this area. Maybe I should sell the authors my version of their exercises??? To give Sam's and the authors of this just-another-one-in-the-pile, I would have to say that technically, it does indeed cover ASP.NET pretty well and if you are a VB programmer, you've got another decent instructional book. But, because of the advertised inclusiveness of C# that simply is not there, I have to give it a 3 at best. It just looks like I'll already have learned it on my own by the time the C# dedicated Sam's comes out in Feb or March, if it meets it's projected publishing date that is...................
Rating:
Summary: ASP.NET - The Hard Way
Review: What's the difference between ASP and ASP.NET? According to this book, it's just syntax. There are lots of code samples here but the book has you entering most of it by hand. What you, the developer, need to learn is how to cooperate with the .NET IDE to create ASP.NET applications - you won't learn enough of that here. Furthermore, subjects like SSL, Trace Debugging, E-mail functionality and File Streaming come too early in the course while database access comes in too late. There is some useful information on setting up the web environment, registering an SSL Certificate, working with XML and there's a whole chapter on File Streaming. But overall, it's not a bargain - even from the bargain rack. Note: This is not the same book as that by the same title but authored by Scott Mitchell.
Rating:
Summary: ASP.NET - The Hard Way
Review: What's the difference between ASP and ASP.NET? According to this book, it's just syntax. There are lots of code samples here but the book has you entering most of it by hand. What you, the developer, need to learn is how to cooperate with the .NET IDE to create ASP.NET applications - you won't learn enough of that here. Furthermore, subjects like SSL, Trace Debugging, E-mail functionality and File Streaming come too early in the course while database access comes in too late. There is some useful information on setting up the web environment, registering an SSL Certificate, working with XML and there's a whole chapter on File Streaming. But overall, it's not a bargain - even from the bargain rack. Note: This is not the same book as that by the same title but authored by Scott Mitchell.
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