I assume you are speaking of the jet database engine. JET stands for Joint Engine Technology, and is used in small projects on Access, Visual Basic to store Database information. Jet is very fast, easy on a single platform, but bottle necks up in a multi-platform networking environments. It is best for Visual Basic in multi-platform scenarios to use MSDE,SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, or SQL Server. The problems with channeling database information securely over the in house intranet network and over the internet was a major reason Microsoft went to a .NET programming language, and SQL Server. This channel of information was simple in Java, but more complex in COBRA , and Microsoft's COM. Access Database that mainly use's .jet is used often is small business applications that needs some sort of Relational Database System that Excel Spreadsheets can not provide. Because many persons using Access do not understand Database fundamentals . Access can be an easy way to create juggled databases like spaghetti and meatballs in a bowl. Some ill-informed individuals think that maybe if Visual Basic is used as a front end some of the problems from spaghetti ( $ transactions ) dropping out of the bowl (database ) will be solved. Sorry the 1st thing is to have a specialist that knows how to normalize a database take care of the jumbled .jet Relational Database according to Sql / mathematical / logical rules. Then the .jet database can be upgraded to MSDE, SQL, mySQL, post-SQL, or any other database engine for multi-platform use. Once the database is "fine-tuned" / normalized the front end whether in Visual.Net , Ada, Java, C++, Python, Ruby on Rails, Ajax Html becomes simpler. Do you have to use .Net there are many other ways to bridge the gap between the front end and database of the network?