unfortunately, it's not going to be easy to find that 'common ground' with the app i'm building. (basically, an interface to the host DBs we have, with validation to make sure that hosts exist, are up and running, and meet a few other criteria.)

most hosts will be inside the firewall, but i have to build in the possibility that external hosts can be added. i'm also dealing with ~10 different types of hosts (routers, NT boxes, Solaris boxes, blah blah).

your advice is a great idea; maybe a little more thought and i'd figure out a 'service' that's general enough. . . but i can't make any assumptions.