I was wanting to make a data entry program for this company that would like to allow its employees to do the data entry at home, store it there, then have a choice of uploading the data through the web or bringing it back to the company on disk. Normally, I would do this with a normal client, build the data entry forms, menus, search screens, etc. I was just thinking, though, if it could be possible to make a "fake" web server running on the home computers, where they could type in a special web address into their web browsers, and use the web browser for the interface.

My two options is making this fake web server, or I could even put a browser ActiveX object in an application, and just catch everything that comes through and output whatever I want. The issue I have with that, though, is that I have to worry about browser versions, and the headaches of catching everything, etc. I realize I could make some foundation classes, but I would just like to make an automation server if possible.

So, is it possible? And if so, would it cause more problems than it's worth? So far, what I get from the documentation, is that you have to have IIS running (or some web server) already running in order to invoke the stuff needed to create an automation server. This is out of the question for people to have, so if that's the only way, then I'll have to go with some other method.