difference about regional settings and culture?

[David]

Hi,

We use an english version windows server.
The regional setings are set to French (France).
Asp.Net renders and interprets the date correctly (dd/mm/yyyy). So does Sql
Server (date is saved in dd/mm/yyy format in datetime field).

When inputting a date into a textbox (dd/mm/yyyy) which must be inserted in
Sql server, there comes an error "string cannot be converted to date ...".
By applying <globalization culture="fr-BE" uiCulture="fr-BE" />, the problem
is solved.

My question is: why does this happen? The two parties (ASP.NET and Sql
server) understand each other and understand the right date format, no? So,
can the conversion process be considered as a third party between ASP.NET
and Sql Server, which always apply the english date format (mm/dd/yyyy)?

Why this confusing distinction between the regional settings and culture?

Thanks
David