>I have several places where I want to use a DropDownList for a lookup. One of those places has 28,000 records to associate with it...
>Is that too many?

Yes... remember you are sending all those records over the wire to populate that list box.

How about a "find" icon next to the field. It would popup another web browser/form that would have a parameterized list on it. Your user could put in search parameters to find the person. Once found they select it, your populate window passes the info into the txtbox on the original form.

Or, you could just use a textbox with a custom validator... the user could enter a name free form... you could then check to see if that name was valid.

BOb