This is a general question about the direction of what to learn next.  I need to do some advanced record sorting and displaying and I feel like I'm pushing up against the limits of the SQLDataSource and DataRepeater.  If I want to manually code the connetion to the database, the filtering of records, and the displaying of them on a page, what's the best avenue to learn that?

Is the technology I'm searching for ADO.Net? or Linq?  Where should I invest my time.

Thanks for your input!