oh believe me I know. But network (lan) traffic can still be intercepted, packet sniffed, and if unencrypted, exploited. I'm now looking into possibly mysql over SSH. Disadvantage of course is the app must have the SSH username/password as program variables, which can be extracted. Vs direct MySQL, which you can just have a person login with their own mysql username and password. Is there any way to disassociate SSH with the filesystem/console and just mysql is there any better way than using XML/SSH for over the internet (yes, not lan). As i'm still not sure if I should do this lan or internet. This is a computer repair management software, i'm going to initially write it for myself, and maybe later release it, i'm not sure free or pay. If I use an internet web connector, I can enable a payment system for peoples accounts, but if thier internet is out, they can't use it. Lan, they can. i'm also considering using studio 2012, as the mysql connector does not work in 2008 (says "system cannot find the reference specified") and as much as i've learned vb.net a few years back, c#.net seems to be closer to PHP, my long learned language. Might consider learning c#