In this section we'll describe a few of the commonly used categories. Note that we've only categorized in this way for guidance. We've intended this as a useful way of understanding what can be done with components, but nothing more there are no hard and fast rules about categories, and they are not mutually exclusive. A given component may fit into more than one of the categories we describe. If you've used many components in your ASP development, you'll probably recognize some of these varieties, and may even be able to name some examples of each.
Some components are of a generalized nature, and designed to be used in many different environments.
And, of course, we can use them from ASP we'll be focusing more closely on ADO and ASP in Chapter 4. Other components are designed specifically for use in a particular environment, and rely on some of the facilities of that environment in order to operate. The standard Browser Capabilities component that ships with ASP, for example, is designed specifically for use within IIS and ASP, and useless in any other environment. We will come back to a discussion of client server and n-tier architecture when we've completed our 'categorization'. But for the moment, if you think about the client as being the machine that makes a request for the pages, and the server as a different machine where your ASP pages reside and get processed, with some kind of network in between, you will be able to follow the descriptions of components.