Freelance Programming

I was recently laid off by my employer. I want to use this opportunity to become a freelance programmer. I would like to help businesses do business on the web, since that is what I did at my previous employer. I would like to basically take their existing database and make a front-end to it. I'm sure some of you are already doing this type of work, because there was a pricing thread on this list a while back. My question isn't really how do I do this, because I know the technical details involved, but what I want to know is do you do this type of work on their own server? Or do you trust hosting companies with potentially sensitive data. It seems like a security risk to me if you access a company's database from outside of their network. I would have no trouble whatsoever setting up a GNU/Linux server for them on their own network, but I'm afraid some companies I may deal with do not have reliable Internet access. While I was pondering these things it occurred to me that some of you must surely have encountered these same things in the past, so I'm hoping you might be willing to share your experiences with me and the other readers. I greatly appreciate any information you can give someone starting as a freelance programmer. -- Jason Stechschulte stech@bright.net -- What's page one, a preemptive strike? -- Professor Freund, Communication, Ramapo State College