Securing data

[James]

What's the best way of securing online databases and web services? At present I am using a database password, which of course is not hard-coded into the web service, but this means re-submitting it with every function call from my windows client. Any alternatives?

[Christoph Schittko [MVP]]

James,

What exactly do you mean with "securing data". It sounds like you're trying
to restrict database access to users that have a user account and password.
Be careful with that because you might submit user name and password in
clear text with every function call.

Can you elaborate more on your environment, are you doing this in an
intranet setting, is the service exposed to the internet, are all clients on
windows, etc.

--
HTH
Christoph Schittko [MVP, XmlInsider]
Software Architect, .NET Mentor
"James" <an*******@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CF**********************************@microsof t.com...

What's the best way of securing online databases and web services? At

present I am using a database password, which of course is not hard-coded
into the web service, but this means re-submitting it with every function
call from my windows client. Any alternatives?

[James]

I basically want a web service on the Internet which provides access to an online database, on the same web server. It is very important that the database cannot be viewed or modified by anyone, except for by a client website and Windows application (through the web service), which I will design. I see your point about not sending a plain-text password with every call to the web service, but do you have any other ideas? Bear in mind that since the website, web service and database are hosted by a separate provider (discountASP.net), I will not be able to specify user permissions (I don't think). I'm pretty much a beginner here, so please keep it simple ;) Many thanks. James.