Other Cool Controls

CAPTCHASP lets users in and keep bots out. This free control provides instant, highly customizable CAPTCHA verification. Try the live demo now and download the control here:

http://SteveOrr.net/FreeControls/CAPTCHASP

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WebChat is a free, fully functional chat room control. The control uses AJAX to make efficient use of bandwidth and create a smooth user experience. Download the full control (and source code) for free and read the accompanying article that describes how it works in detail.

http://SteveOrr.net/articles/WebChat.aspx

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SharpZipLib is an open source project that enables you to implement file compression functionality using several of the most standard formats. The C# source code is well written and the online forum provides lots of Q&A.

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SharpZipLib/Default.aspx

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Master the art of search with this free custom SearchBox control that provides the ability to search your web site, other web sites, or the entire web. The source code is included free along with the accompanying article that details the inner workings of the control.

http://SteveOrr.net/articles/SearchBox.aspx

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.NET Communication Library is provided by ComponentSpot.com to handle NNTP needs. Although Outlook Express is a “good enough” newsreader for most folks, you can create your own usenet software with this open source component. ComponentSpot.com also provides several other networking components that you’ll be interested in browsing if you’re into that kind of thing.

http://www.componentspot.com/products/index.aspx?MasterCat=2

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Written in pure C#, FreeSMTP is a component by Quiksoft for creating and sending e-mails. Using this component you can send e-mails with as little as one line of code. There are no dependencies (other than the .NET Framework, of course) and it provides functionality that the standard System.Web.Main class doesn’t, such as progress monitoring, file logging, and HTML messages with alternate body text.

http://www.quiksoftcorp.com/freesmtp/

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PdfCreator by Serdar Dirican is a component that allows you to visually export content to a PDF document. You can design the document from within Visual Studio. The impressively complex C# source code is available for download, but you’ll need to remember to import the System.Windows.Forms.dll to get it to work with ASP.NET Web applications.

http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=5588085e-3d0b-4db8-8a88-603ef212d0db

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ID3Util by Ambientware is an MP3 Tag Parser component that allows you to extract track information from MP3 files. The open source VB.NET code is a mere download away.

http://www.ambientware.com/components/ID3Util.aspx