Is it possible to read/write into a SQL Server 2005 database, from a VB.NET application, using a user who does NOT have a sysadmin server role?
To read from all tables in a database, there is a Database role called db_datareader. To insert/update/delete from all tables in a database, there is a Database role called db_datawriter.
The user will need to be mapped to a login at the Instance level, but no server roles will be required, especially not sysadmin.