With the release of .NET, Microsoft once again altered the distributed programming landscape. Almost everything changed, from data access, to remote object calls, to the deployment of software components. And of course, .NET introduced a new technology in XML Web services that revolutionized Web development.

Distributed .NET Programming in VB .NET describes how to use these .NET technologies to build fast, scalable, and robust distributed applications. Along the way, it answers common questions such as: How do I use the .NET Remoting Framework? What role does COM+ play in the .NET universe? How can I interoperate with COM components? What's the difference between .NET Remoting and Web services? How will these changes affect the architecture and design of a distributed application?

Author Tom Barnaby assumes the reader is already familiar with the fundamentals of .NET. However, a .NET overview is provided to concisely explain several of the core .NET technologies that are essential for distributed programming, including building, versioning, and deploying assemblies; garbage collection; serialization; and attribute-based programming.