Accessing a remote database over TCP/IP

OK, so my boss comes up with this (according to him) brilliant idea. We are a internet company and what he ask me to do is use a Access 2000 datapage to show our clients data on the internet and then write a small program to enable the client to sit at home and update his data offline and then hit a button to dail in and have the live data updated automatically. Now the first part is easy but it is with the second that my problem lies. We do not want to give our clients direct dial in access to the server, coz it would cause mayhem. So what is the best way to access the data on our server via a normal TCP/IP connection? Anybody?

------------------

If you are not talking about ASP, then you definitely DO NOT want to use a MS Access database over the internet -- each time that something has to be done to it, the whole table has to be transferred to the client for an insert/update/delete/select, and then back to the server.

If you are using an ASP page (or similar) then it won't matter too much for only a couple simultaneous users at most...

hmmm...ASP? I didn't think of that :) Ok if I don't want to use ASP and I shouldn't use a Access DB, then what?

What do you recomend to use to access a remote database on the internet executing a local VB program?

Quote:

---

If you are not talking about ASP, then you definitely DO NOT want to use a MS Access database over the internet -- each time that something has to be done to it, the whole table has to be transferred to the client for an insert/update/delete/select, and then back to the server.

If you are using an ASP page (or similar) then it won't matter too much for only a couple simultaneous users at most...

---

if you're an internet company, why not make a web based interface to a SQL or Oracle database? Why add another app to someone's desktop when it can all be done through the web? Maybe I'm missing something here...

well, from my experience, the small businesses I've worked with can't afford oracle. Access is all they have. I don't know about FirstKnight's situation. I guess they get what they pay for. They don't know that not all databases are equal.

-Ozman