You can look at Rick Strah's Web-Connect product at
You can write a fat web-app that accesses the data using an internet connection, even as slow as a modem . You can even create an work-offline module in case the connection is down or if you needed to take the app with you and there is no connection available.
I have a sample app, on mysite, but it does not contain the source code. Unfortunately, we have too much invested in the source code at this time and have not recovered our development costs so we can't post it free.
However, the code was developed by looking at Rick's samples and posting questions to his message board.
If you're interested in seeing how it works you can download and install the sample from my site. They are under "samples"
The sample that fits this need the most is called, "Two-Way Desktop Application (Web-Service)"
Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC