Does anyone know how to connect to a database from an ASP page to another DB

on another system, say Oracle or SQL Server, that isn't part of the same

LAN/WAN, but is connected to the Internet (not part of the same domain

either)?  My buddy thinks it can be done, but I've never come across

anything that says it can...



Does anyone know if this can even be done?



TIA,



Cory Koski



Web Programmer

Wabang Creative Technology and TBSource.com

e-certified as Master ASP programmer, Web programmer,

and IIS 4.0 Administrator

visit: http://www.tbsource.com/

(xxx) xxx-xxxx  ext. 41

It can be done, but there a few big gotchas along the way.



Performance will be attrocious.  Pulling data from a remote database and

pumping it across the Internet means every database call will suffer from

the inherent latency of the 'Net.  It is very possible the ASP application

will suffer from frequent timeouts, especially if large blocks of data are

being transferred.



Security is a huge concern.  How is the data being passed across the net?

Clear text?  Encrypted?  If you encrypt it, you're introducing another major

performance hit.  You'll also need to be concerned if there are any

firewalls between the web server and the database server.  The proper ports

will need to be opened on any firewalls to allow the two servers to "talk."

This, in turn, opens up some security vulnerabilities because you're making

your database server available to the world.



The method you would use to connect to MS SQL or Oracle would be the same

method used to connect to MS SQL or Oracle on any TCP/IP network (with the

above considerations in mind).  You'll need to know the host name or IP

address of the database server (and, of course, have an account on the

database server).



Stephen Martin

Chief Web Architect

Fairfax County, Virginia

http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/



-----Original Message-----

From: ckoski@w...

To: ASP Databases

Sent: 9/14/00 8:33 AM

Subject: [asp_databases] Remote DB connections...



Does anyone know how to connect to a database from an ASP page to

another DB

on another system, say Oracle or SQL Server, that isn't part of the same

LAN/WAN, but is connected to the Internet (not part of the same domain

either)?  My buddy thinks it can be done, but I've never come across

anything that says it can...



Does anyone know if this can even be done?



TIA,



Cory Koski



Web Programmer

Wabang Creative Technology and TBSource.com

e-certified as Master ASP programmer, Web programmer,

and IIS 4.0 Administrator

visit: http://www.tbsource.com/

(xxx) xxx-xxxx  ext. 41