ScottGu's Blog

One of the most popular features in ASP.NET 2.0 was the introduction of the "provider model" for the built-in ASP.NET Application Service APIs.  The provider model ensures that the storage/implementation for services like Membership, Roles, Profiles, Health Monitoring, Session State, and Site Navigation is extensible, and it allows a developer to easily plug-in alternative implementations if they want. 

Simon Muzio recently posted a link to free upcoming webcast talks for .NET.  These are free webcast presentations that anyone can join over the web.  You can find archived versions of past webcast events on the http://www.asp.net/learn site here.

Two weeks ago we released the VS 2005 SP1 Beta.  You can download it for free by visiting and registering on the Microsoft Connect Site. 

Earlier this summer I posted two tutorials on using Windows Authentication with ASP.NET: Enabling Window Authentication within an Intranet ASP.NET Web Application and Implementing Role Based Security within ASP.NET using Windows Authentication and SQL Server.  I also linked to Scott Mitchell's great ASP.NET 2.0 Security, Membership and Roles Tutorials that cover how to use Forms Authentication and the new Membership/Roles APIs in ASP.NET for Internet based web applications.

November 6th-10th are the dates for this fall's ASP.NET Connections Conference at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. 

Today we launched a Chinese and German content section on the www.asp.net web-site (so you can find localized articles, blogs, forums and other community sites).  This adds to the Spanish, French and English versions already available.  You can switch your language preference in the top-right of the site to filter the content of the www.asp.net site, or link to them directly here:

ComponentArt today announced a commercial version of their Web.UI controls that integrate with the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions (aka "Atlas").