Dmitry-

>You understood my situation correctly, the data and ASP.NET will not be on the same network. They won't even be in the same geographical state <g>. ASP.NET will be on a web server that does not have any kind of connection to the data server, except ASP.NET is open to the Internet. And data server will have internet connection. You raised a question, which is valid, as to whether the data server would have to have IIS and have another service. It maybe so. This is what I am trying to find out, to understand conceptually how to put it all together.

>Anyway, I appreciate yours and Bonnie's input into this. And maybe you are right, maybe Web Services is not the right approach. But I don't know, and I am open to any approach, as long as it is practical and without extra headache (now I am dreaming <g>)

Please don't misunderstand me. You may well want to use webservices. It's a technique...an implementation. Do read Strah's papers on webservices. Basically you would create classes that do what you need to get from your data and then compile them as objects that can be accessed from the Web. It's not really as mystical as it might seem. But you're still left with the problem of getting at the Webservice. The asp side is fine on the hosted server. That's not the problem.

Anyway, webservices don't automagically expose the data on your internal server to the outside world. I'm trying to do a quick test between my desktop and laptop with my system but have to bail on you for now to get some client work finished. Sorry! I'll try to get back to it shortly. I'll keep on the thread, too.