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  What is ASP?.

Active Server Pages (ASP) technology is actually used to mix HTML and code. It provides the power of a Web server to process user requests and dynamic, file, and database data, individualized, content based on logic. In other words, ASP lets multiple users simultaneously run a program on your web server. 
     ASP lets you treat as unique entities, even though all  of them are running the same program on the same machine---Web server.
      --- A way to save individualized data for each user.
      --- Access to the file system.
      --- Access to databases.
      --- A means to launch and control any component Object Model (COM) component.
     In short, ASP allows you to build multi-user applications, which means you can leverage ASP to provide application scalability. If you plan your ASP applications carefully, they can scale from a single-server application that can handle 30-100 simultaneous users and a few thousands hits per day to multi-server applications handling thousands of simultaneous users and millions of requests per day

  How ASP Works?.

    An Active Server Page is a standard ASCII text file. It may be considered as an HTML file that 'thinks'; that is to say, it reacts to user responses.

     An ASP file always has a .ASP extension. It would contain script that is executed at that server and may also contain script that executes at the client's browser.

     There are essentially three entities involved in every HTTP transaction; the user, the Web client (browser) and the Web server. The user communicates with the Web server using the Web client. The Web Client and the Web Server communicate with each other using HTTP headers. This is a Certain set of data that is invisible to the user and is sent with every HTTP transaction, to and from the client.

     ASP runs as an ISAPI (Internet Server Application Programming Interface) filter under IIS (Internet Information Server). This filter is just an extended set of functions for IIS. When a user requests a file from the Web Server by entering its URL in his browser or clicking on a link, the ISAPI filter intervenes before the Web Server sends the file t the client. If the request is for a . ASP file, the relevant Active Server engine takes over and parses the file from top to bottom. All server-side scripts within the file are executed and the file is sent ahead to the Web server with only HTML output. This file is then sent to the user. The browser receives the HTML output and displays it as normal HTML.