To database or not to database? What to do with uploaded files on server-side? This article contains performance tests of several store-file methods in server-side ASP.
We test store files to disk, to MDB file using ADO recordset, to MS SQL 2000 using ADO recordset and to MS SQL 2000 using SQL UPDATETEXT command

So you want to learn ASP, well hopefully you will find some of the tutorials and articles in this section of Web Wiz Guide useful.

Servlets, the Java equivalent of CGI applications, can deliver on many of Java's promises while dodging some of its worst limitations

ADO is used to query the data, and the underlying database may be MySQL, SQL Server, Access, Oracle, or any other major RDBMS. Unlike many other articles, complete examples are presented, which may be copied into a file and run directly. Techniques for optimizing the output of tabular data are presented first, followed by techniques for optimizing more complex tabular data typical of reports. The appendix contains instructions for configuring the tests, links to references, and books suggestions.

If you are developing a password-protected web site, you have to make a decision about how to store user password information securely.

What is "secure," anyway? Realize that the data in your database is not safe. What if the password to the database is compromised? Then your entire user password database will be compromised as well. Even if you are quite certain of the security of your database, your users' passwords are still accessible to all administrators who work at the Web hosting company where your database is hosted. Scrambling the passwords using some home-brewed algorithm may add some obscurity but not true "security." Another approach would be to encrypt all passwords in your database using some industry-standard cipher, such as the Message-Digest Algorithm 5 (MD5).

MD5 encryption is a one-way hashing algorithm. Two important properties of the MD5 algorithm are that it is impossible to revert back an encrypted output to the initial, plain-text input, and that any given input always maps to the same encrypted value. This ensures that the passwords stored on the server cannot be deciphered by anyone. This way, even if an attacker gains reading permission to the user table, it will do him no good.

MD5 does have its weaknesses. MD5 encryption is not infallible: if the password is not strong enough, a brute force attack can still reveal it. So, you can ask: "Why should I use MD5 if I know it is not the most secure?" The answer is fairly straightforward: it's fast, it's easy, and it can be powerful if salted. The greatest advantage of MD5 is its speed and ease of use.

It is vitally important to understand that password encryption will not protect your website, it can protect your passwords only. If your website does not have sufficient protection, password encryption will not make it safe from cracking. If your system has been cracked, a hacker can inflict a irreparable damage to it and also gain an access to confidential information, including passwords database. But if you store this information encrypted, hackers practically cannot make use of it. Cracking an encrypted password takes a large amount of time and processing power, even on today's computers.

There are no built-in MD5 functions in ASP. To enable MD5 encryption you should include md5.asp.


So, let's start. First of all, you need to add a new account to your database. The following code allows to do it.