UltiDev Cassini is a free, light-weight and  redistributable web server  that can host  ASP.NET 3.5, 3.0, 2.0 and 1.1  applications and static HTML sites. Whenever your customers need an alternative to IIS — UltiDev Cassini web server is the answer. UltiDev Cassini was built using Microsoft Cassini web server sample as a base, but was vastly improved and expanded compared to original Cassini sample by adding lots of new features and fixing existing bugs. UltiDev Cassini runs on all flavors of Windows XP including Windows XP Home, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server.

UltiDev LLC created its version of Cassini web server specifically for ASP.NET developers who want to  create easily installable ASP.NET applications that do not require IIS .

By far the most important feature of UltiDev Cassini Web Server is ability for Visual Studio developers to include this very compact, yet very powerful ASP.NET web server into their applications' setup packages
in just a matter of minutes.

UltiDev Cassini Web Server fully supports all ASP.NET features and is capable of running applications as complex as DotNetNuke, as long as applications are not dependent on features specific to IIS, like IIS server variables.
 

Here are features present in UltiDev Cassini, but not in the original MS Cassini:

• Comes ready for distribution with Visual Studio ASP.NET applications.
• Runs as a windows service;
• Hosts and runs multiple ASP.NET applications;
• Provides management UI and simple API for configuring web applications;
• Comes in two flavors: 2.0 version for ASP.NET 3.5, 3.0 and 2.0 applications, and 1.1 for applications compiled for ASP.NET 1.1.

For developers our version of Cassini provides not only ready-for-distribution setup components, bust also code-free registration of applications with the server, debugging capabilities, and Cassini Developer's Guide with detailed instructions on how to use Cassini for development and distribution of ASP.NET applications.

Cassini 1.1 requires .NET Framework 1.1 and supports ASP.NET 1.1 applications. Cassini 2.0 requires .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.x and supports ASP.NET applications developed for all .NET Framework versions. Cassini 1.1 and 2.0 can work side-by-side.

Please refer to the Release Notes document to find out what's new in the latest version of UltiDev Cassini. For more details about integrating your ASP.NET applications with UltiDev Cassini, please visit our online Support Forum.

Download UltiDev Cassini Web Server today and start developing that killer web application for home servers or office desktops you've been thinking about!

UltiDev recommends running UltiDev Cassini Web Server as an Intranet (inside-the-LAN) web server. Exposing UltiDev Cassini to Internet may be unsafe without using of HttpVPN due to the fact that UltiDev Cassini windows service is running under the powerful Local System (NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM) account. Compromising applications running under Cassini may give an attacker complete control over the system.