ASP needs a Server

ASP is short for Active Server Pages. As the name suggests once you request a page the request is sent off to another computer that acts as the server. The server can be a computer on the internet, or on a local intranet at your office. You can even use your own computer as a server!

When you request a web page the server will locate the page and process the ASP code and then send the page back as a pure HTML page.
If you haven't got a web server then you won't be able to see your ASP page. You cannot view an ASP page in the way you open a HTML page in your browser by clicking on file>open> and browsing to the page. The page must be run through a server.
The two most popular servers are IIS and its 'little brother' PWS.

If you are not running your ASP page on an external hosting company's server then have a look at my tutorial on 'installing ASP on your own PC'.

If you do not want to run your ASP scripts on your own computer even for development purposes then I would suggest using Brinkster.com. It offers free web space where you can run your scripts. There are also excellent forums.

So in summary ASP files must be processed by a server either IIS (Internet Information Services) or PWS (Personal Web Server). You can either install a server on your own machine or use your hosting company's.