I have a SL4 application that uses EF4 & RIA Services. DB is SQL 2008. All is working well. Now I want to put the Database and web services on one domain (A.com) with the web service exposing the same methods available in my working project. (one listed at top of message) Then put a Silverlight application (same one as above) on domain(B.com) and call the web services on A.com. I thought I had a fair understanding of RIA Services. Enough to get the above application working. Now when I say "working" I do mean on my local dev machine. I have yet to deployed as SL4 & .NET 4 application to my hosting site. But I don't think I understand it well enough. I normally create a new business app, add EF then create the RIA DomainService. Add any [Includes] I need, modify my linq queries and run application. And it works. Now I need to break off my data layer and put it on another hosting site (A.com) And put my UI and business logic on another hosting site (B.com) I think I need to do the following : On the Database & web service site: domain(A.com) create application, create EF4, create RIA Services and deploy. At this time, are the methods exposed available as a "WEB SERVICE" to other applications calling by http:// a.com/serviceName.svc address? I think I need to do the following : On the application site : domain(B.com) create a business application (later will need authentication and navigation). How can I create an EF when I don't have access to the database? (I know I do have access but I want know what happens here when I do not have access to the database, but only data provided by a web service) If I can not create an EF how do I create my RIA Service? I hope any one who takes time to help me understands what I'm asking. Sorry so long.