Tom,

>One more question....I'm going to put together a web page to promote, sell, update, etc a simple Access Utility and possibly another app. I want to be able to get customer data, promote the apps and to ftp. Can you give me some advice on how I might start.
>
>The design and promotion parts I've done before. The data forms, data collecting, and file transfer... I've not.

You could go with just a simple ASP application written in VBScript -- you can probably find example code on the web or in one of the many ASP books out there. You'd use ADO to talk to your data thru ODBC (if VFP) or OLE-DB (if Access). Most ISP's can set you up for ASP's, although you may have to put in a special request for loading up the VFP ODBC driver for you.

Alternatively, you could have your ASP's call VFP COM objects that do the data, but you'll find even fewer ISP's who will allow that.

Alternatively, you could get FoxWeb or Web Connection, which narrows down your choice of ISP's even more. For WC ISP support, check with John Harvey's shelbynet for co-location of server.

Or, for low-volume web sites with WC, you can host your own NT Server thru cable modem or DSL, like I am doing at www.hilltopdata.com. That server is on DSL with dedicated IP address, and is suitable for low-volume sites -- I primarily use it for client demos.

>How about VFP forms converted to html?

You can do that with WC's DHTML form rendering to get the image of the form onto the web, but you have to write extra code to handle the hits. That works only with Internet Explorer 4 and up, and so is not suitable for a public ecommerce site.

>Inexpensive hosting in our area?

Location of the ISP does not matter at all -- the important thing is service and flexibility.

An ecommerce site that I'm finishing up this week is co-location hosted by Verio/Digital Nation, meaning that the server is dedicated to just this site. This was built with the Web Store sample app from Web Connection. I demo changes for the client on my site, then upload the final EXE and html templates to the live site with PCAnywhere. Then I click the "Update EXE" link on the admin pages, which puts hits on hold, updates the EXE, and restarts them. It takes about 10 secs max.

www.hroutlet.com (be gentle, still cleaning up a few pages and links)

You'll note that this site has downloadable demos of software, which is accomplished by just pointing the browser to an exe file, which is in a directory with restricted IIS/MMC rights -- you have to uncheck the Execute right to trigger the download.

>Your thoughts are appreciated..... if you ever wake up from being on the UT so late tonight! < s >

I woke up for real in the dentist's chair at about 9:15 this morning!