New to GIS. Radius?

I've been asked to program a feature into our website that allows a user to put in their zip code and then find a list of institutions of higher learning (which would be in our database) that is within a given radius that the user specifies.

What data do I need to do this? What software do I need to do this? Will any of the data need to be purchased? Can mappoint do this? How do I get started and what are the approximate costs.

I appreciate your help.

MapPoint, the desktop product priced around $250, cannot be integrated into a public web site, doing so violates the EULA. (technically I think it may be OK on an Intranet if you buy licenses for everybody)

There is a MapPoint web service for use on the Internet, I believe pricing starts at $8000 and up.

Eric

I saw some of the questiions regarding cold fusion, and I think Perl in the forum, but its not legal. $8000 too pricey and Web Services is for .Net. I'm still in stone age.

Could I use the desktop version to calculate the radius for every zip code combination in the state and then store it in a database. Then access the distances from the database by zip code rather than Mappoint?

You need a dealer locator, I got one here :
http://newimagedesigngroup.com/Sales/NuLocator.asp
and it works great

Matt

Matt,

Thanks for the link but http://newimagedesigngroup.com/Sales/NuLocator.asp does not work is there anywhere else i can get this code/solution?