You can use a DataReader to fetch the records and populate the listbox. You want to only fetch the records the first time the page is rendered since the data won't change. Here is some sample code:

//Only run the code if this is the first time the page is rendered
if (Page.IsPostBack == false)
{
   SqlConnection  cnn = new SqlConnection(connStr);
   string  strSQL = "SELECT * FROM Authors";
   SqlCommand  cmd = new SqlCommand(strSQL, cnn);
   SqlDataReader dr;

   cnn.Open();
   dr = cmd.ExecuteReader(	CommandBehavior.CloseConnection);

   while ( dr.Read() )
   {
	lstDemo.Items.Add(string .Format("{0}: {1}, {2}",dr("Au_Id"), dr("Au_lname"), dr("Au_fname")));
   }

   dr.Close();
}

>I have a a page where the listbox is a Select distinct row from a table used in a SQLServer Data connection.
>
>How do I get the thing populated on load of the form? Should I create a special reader?
>
>TIA
>
>__Stephen