ASP.NET is a server-side web application framework used to build dynamic web sites and web applications. It includes components like languages (VB.NET, C#), libraries, and the common language runtime. ASP.NET allows developers to create web applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Validation controls in ASP.NET are used to validate user input data by checking for correct data formats, types, and values within specified ranges. Common validation controls include RequiredFieldValidator, CompareValidator, RangeValidator, and RegularExpressionValidator.