ASP 101 - ASP.NET Webcast Series

ASP.NET Webcast Series

John Peterson

I recently caught one of these webcasts and all I can say is WOW! Not only are these a great way to learn all sorts of cool stuff about ASP.NET, but Microsoft is offering a free copy of VB.NET and a free ASP.NET book just for watching. They're giving you incentives to watch free webcasts that are better then some of the classes that people pay good money for... what's wrong with this world?

Hurry Up and Register

A lot of the good sessions (especially ones at the 200 level) say "Not Available". To be honest, I'm not quite sure what that means, but it might mean they're already full. Just to be on the safe side, I'd register for the webcasts you're interested in ASAP.

When you register, they keep track of the webcasts you sign up for and send you email reminders, but make sure you remember who you register as. Like an idiot, I didn't use my passport when I signed up and now Microsoft has yet another entry in their DB for me... that's gotta be over a dozen by now. ;)

Oh... and about that reminder email. I got mine about half an hour before the webcast. It'll contain a link that'll take you directly to your virtual seat. I'd recommend clicking on it. Finding these things via the web site isn't as easy as one would hope.

Anyway, you can get more information and sign up for the webcasts that you are interested in at http://www.aspnetwebcasts.com.

The Webcasts

The webcasts themselves are hosted in something called Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I hadn't used it before, but it installed relatively quickly via an ActiveX control. I didn't really notice how big it was, but then again my connection is on the faster side. I'd recommend getting there a few minutes early for your first one in order to get everything installed. Oh and while I like Firefox as much as the next guy, I'd recommend using IE for these.