VB stand alone application or ASP web application

Question

I have experience developing software and web applications and I have decided to do some freelance work on the side. Well, I met with my first client and they are requesting a relatively simple, custom system that (without being long winded) tracks client’s paperwork as it progresses through the business’s different manual processes. It is a small business that has about 10 employees, but all of the employees will interact with the client’s paperwork, therefore everyone would need access to the new system. When I say ‘track’ I literally mean that the employees will ‘check as complete’ on a simple page the increases a progress bar at different stages for the paperwork. Now I am %110 capable of coding the custom system that meets their needs, but I am unsure about how I should go about doing it.

The information that is being tracked in the new system and stored in the DB is confidential information that they are very protective of. My main question is how should I be developing this to be as secure as I can?

-They have their own server in house, so should I develop an application (VB and SQL) for the server and require employees to log on remotely to use it? Can more than one person access/use the application at a time?

-Or should I develop a web application (ASP.Net/VB and SQL) that is only accessible on their network to their employees? They plan to expand offices, could they set up a VPN to access the site?

I’m leaning towards a web application, but I have not done too much in term of security. Basically I’m looking for pros and cons for either option or any suggestions on what I should.

PS, stackoverflow is awesome! Long time user, first time poster!

Answer 1

If you want to develop using vb & sql you have to consider that:

• You need to have real ip
• Your system will communicate threw certain port and you have to handle the security measure for letting certain port opened in your server.
• You should have good knowledge in network programming

If you want to develop using asp.net you have to consider that:

• in case only office employees will use the system, you can develop against users in Active Directory and for outside users with username and password with SSL connection or vpn

for preventing more than one person access the file you can simply add column 'locked' in case file is being used.