How do I make my ASP page pause or 'sleep'?

There is a free component that will help you do this; it is called WaitFor 1.0 and is available at ServerObjects Inc.

If you are using SQL Server (or have access to one), you can try out the following script (adapted from a post by Pierre W):

<%     Set conn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")     conn.Open ""     ' indicate a number of seconds, up to 59     sleep = 10     ' make sure timeout doesn't expire!     conn.commandTimeout = sleep + 5     ' if you neede more than 59 seconds, you will need to adjust the SQL:     sql = "WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:" & right(clng(sleep),2) & "'"     Response.Write(now & "")     conn.Execute sql,,129     Response.Write(now & " ")     conn.close:     Set conn = Nothing %>

Some people will suggest a loop like this:

<% Response.Buffer = true Function WaitFor(SecDelay,ShowMsg)     timeStart = Timer()     timeEnd = timeStart + SecDelay     Msg = "Timer started at " & timeStart & " "     Msg = Msg & "Script will continue in "     i = SecDelay     Do While timeStart < timeEnd         If i = Int(timeEnd) - Int(timeStart) Then         Msg = Msg & i         If i <> 0 Then Msg = Msg & ", "         If ShowMsg = 1 Then Response.Write Msg %> <%         Response.Flush() %> <%         Msg = ""         i = i - 1         End if         timeStart = Timer()     Loop     Msg = "... Slept for " & SecDelay & " seconds (" & _         Timer() & ")"     If ShowMsg = 1 Then Response.Write Msg End Function Call WaitFor(20,0) Call WaitFor(3,1) %>

This is BAD, BAD news. If you can't immediately see why this is a problem, run it and watch task manager:

Look at the page faults, and look at the CPU usage for w3wp.exe. And this is on a dual-processor workstation; it literally pegs a single-CPU server at 99% running through that loop.

(http://classicasp.aspfaq.com/general/how-do-i-make-my-asp-page-pause-or-sleep.html)