Thanks Mithrilhall for the tip! I was able to start the iis service. Yes, some progress has been made because I have been able to display the html screen. However, asp is still not hitting the database. Could it be my code?
Sorry guys, I am a complete newbie.
Please take a look at asp and the accompanying html.
Any pointers will, as usual be highly appreciated.
********************
ASP version
*******************
<%@ Language=VBScript%>
<%Response.buffer=true%>
<html>
<head>
<title>Class Records</title>
</head>
<body>
<%
Set connectionToDatabase=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection"

Set recordSet=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset"

connectionToDatabase.Open "DSN=EmpDB;UID=samantha;PWD=orion"
recordSet.Open "SELECT * FROM EMP",connectionToDatabase,1,3
Dim ename, job, validate
validate=true
for each qryItem in Request.Form
if Request.Form(qryItem) = "" Then
validate = false
Response.Write("Missing : " & qryItem & "<BR>"

End if
next
if not validate then
Response.Write("<body bgcolor=steelblue><BR><font color=red><h3><b>" &_
"Please click the back button and complete the missing fields. " &_
"Thank You</b></h3></font></body> "

else
recordSet.AddNew
recordSet("EMPNO"

= Request.Form("Employee Id"

recordSet("ENAME"

= Request.Form("Employee Name"

recordSet("JOB"

= Request.Form("Job"

recordSet("MGR"

= Request.Form("Manager"

recordSet("HIREDATE"

= Request.Form("Hiredate"

recordSet("SAL"

= Request.Form("Salary"

recordSet("COMM"

= Request.Form("Commission"

recordSet("DEPTNO"

= Request.Form("DEPARTMENT ID"

recordSet.Update
connectionToDatabase.Close
Set connectionToDatabase=Nothing
end if
%>
</body>
</html>
**********************
HTML version
**********************
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Student Class</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<CENTER>
<BODY bgcolor="steelBLUE">
<FORM ACTION="employee.asp" METHOD="POST">
<H2><CENTER>Enter fields to be validated</CENTER></H2>
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Employee ID</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='EMPNO' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Employee Name</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='ENAME' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Job</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='JOB' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Manager</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='MGR' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Hire Date</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='HIREDATE' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Salary</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='SAL' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Commission</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='COMM' VALUE="">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><EM>Department ID</EM></TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE='TEXT' SIZE='16' MAXLENGTH='16' NAME='DEPTNO' VALUE="">
</TD>
<TD ALIGN='LEFT'><INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Validate it!">
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</CENTER>
</HTML>