My suggestion would be to google some free xml files containing that information, and then just using an xmldatasource to bind to your ddl. http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=xml+list+of+countries&meta=[^]

Instead of relying on exceptions to catch the error, you should just do a database connection yourself selecting the user with the supplied username, if a row is returned, then that username exists. Following code is in VB.NET

Dim strQuery as string = ""
strQuery should be where you select * from users where username = username you're trying to test
Dim conn As New SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("mainDBConnection").ConnectionString)
conn.Open()
Dim cmd As New SqlCommand(conn.Database & ".dbo." & strQuery, conn)
Dim dr As SqlDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
if dr.HasRows = true then
'DISPLAY ERROR MSG
end if

Obviously you'll have to change around specifics like database connection string etc. Hope this helps.

Hi, I'm getting a null reference exception on the following code, which is attempting to create a word document. The error is occuring at 'wordDoc.Activate'. I have Word 2007 installed on both the server and on my machine, but I'm not too sure on how the interop stuff works. If someone can point me in the right direction, that would be great.

Imports Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word

....

Dim wordApp = New Word.ApplicationClass()
Dim wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Add
wordApp.Visible = True
wordDoc.Activate()

wordApp.Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = Word.WdParagraphAlignment.wdAlignParagraphLeft
wordApp.Selection.TypeText("Some text")
wordApp.Selection.TypeParagraph()