>>>>>I have a web service set up to send email. We have to set up each client individually on our web server to allow for programmatic emails. We set up this web server and all automated emails will go through the web service. I am creating a utility class to interface with the web service, but I don't want the client to interface with the web service directly.
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>>>>Raw curiosity, the webservice and the utility are in the same DLL or in different DLLs?
>>>>
>>>>In any case if you can't hide the web service you could always put some form of authentication code into it that would verify that the caller is your utility.
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>>>They are in different DLLs. I'm not worried about authentication - I just wanted to make the class browser less confusing.
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>>OK... are you attempting to prevent them using a public property/method of your utility to access the web service directly. In which case I would think making the relevant properties/methods in your utility protected would work.
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>>Or are you trying to prevent them from using the web service directly. In which case some form of check would have to happen in the web service to verify that the caller is the utility.
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>>Or are you just trying to hide the existence of the web service from the user? In which case Bonnie's suggestion of using an interface would at least obfuscate the existence of the web service. The only other way I can think of would require modifying the typelib of the utility, which would be a royal pain.
>
>The third... thanks for the options though.

I'd use Bonnie's suggestion of an interface to refer to the web service then. It should be adequate for what you are doing. The pain here is you will need to define the interface in a third dll.