>Where should I go? I am ordering Rick Strahl's book from west wind technologies, and it looks like there are a bunch of tools available at that web site too. Any other books? Good training courses?
>

WWWC connection will help to clear a lot of this up for you. Not only is it a great framework, but it is excleently documented so that you will learn just by using it. If you have a web server already set up, you can have a WWWC page up and hitting fox data in a couple of hours.

I remember feeling exactly like you do now, but diving in cleared everything up for me in a matter of a few short weeks.

I really think you will lose a lot of your fears after setting up WWWCs sample app.


>Are there any dead ends that you guys can reccomend that I avoid? Do I need to learn CGI scripting and stuff like that?

No. With tools like WWWC (and ASP, if you (imho foolishly) decide to use it instead) replace CGI scripts.

>What is a reasonable price to have a machine co-hosted at my ISP? Or should I set up my own host and get a T1 in? (We could use the extra phone lines and the internet connectivity(sp) for our users)
>

One of my clients pays $250/ month. This gets them backbone bandwidth with UPS / Diesel generators etc.

Depending on your other needs, you might find an in-house T1 cheaper in the big picture. It will definitely make server maintenance easier.