Still trying to get Linq to SQL going, I got things working enough to learn that the namespace created for my database classes wasn't being recognized. One way to figure out what the system knows about is to look at its auto-completion proposals. When I typed, "WebApplication1.", it offered me "default" and "demos". The latter is a folder I created and have been able to use. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the icon for demos was yellow and for App_Code wasn't. I can't figure out a way to change it. However, and this is the point, during this adventure, I have found that Visual Studio can create two different kinds of web projects, "web site" and "web application". When I started, I thought "Hell, I'm a developer. I write applications," and chose application. During the learning so far, I found out that Web Application is not exactly deprecated, but it's not the cool kind of project, Web Site is. Application was added after VS 2005 was introduced because the apps developed in 2003 wouldn't port forward. They had project build files or something that are not part of the new, improved Visual Studio. This combined with the fact that some of the behind the scenes wiring in my sandbox was not working made me decide to blow off the Application route. I killed it all and create a new Web Site project. After going through the rigamarole to add the database, gridview, etc, I get a clean compile. The namespace for App_Code is recognized and, for good measure, I didn't have to manually add the Using statement to include Linq. This is progress.