ASP.Net's introduction of the web.config file went a long way to filling the configuration hole we had to deal with in classic ASP. We actually went from having very little (global.asa was the closest thing) to a well-structured, change on the fly XML file. For the most part, the web.config file does the trick fine. However there are some limitations and constraints with using it, which you are probably already aware of. What you might not know is how easy is it to surmount those issues by creating a far more flexible alternative.