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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T17:10:50+00:00

I had a developer tell me recently that you should ALWAYS do database calls

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I had a developer tell me recently that you should ALWAYS do database calls asynchronously. (Either using ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem or IAsyncResult and delegates)

His justification was this: IIS only has 24 (or so) threads that it can use for requests. When a user makes a request they get one of those threads. However, when you use asynchronous methods, you access Windows threads outside of IIS’s scope. He said that when you use asynchronous methods this way, you are freeing up the initial thread to other users’ requests, and transferring it over to a Windows thread (for that Thread’s lifetime).

What do you think? Should all db calls be asynchronous?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There is a limited number of worker threads. These have to do with ASP.NET, not IIS (except in IIS7, where they’re the same thing). It is true that database calls or any other call uses up one of these threads. In the case of ADO.NET calls, it is possible to write your pages as asynch pages, where no thread is used while the database operation is in progress.

    You should not bother with this until or unless you actually have the problem.

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