[RESOLVED] Suggestion needed vb2005 / db ?? / php

I have a followup project in mind but after doing some reading realize I need some constructive advice.

I'm developing the basic project on my tower using VB 2005 / Windows 7 and will, in time, port the database over to my hosts server and hopefully query it with php5 for web access.
Obviously <??> the best database is going to be mySQL. Database structure is fairly straight forward ( I was a COBOL programmer using databases on the HP systems for years, just need to update myself ) and since I'm working with TTF & OTF fonts that structure, pretty much, follows the structure of the fonts themselves.
Here is where I start to lose all contact with reality - if I were to wish to update the database on my host directly from VB 2005 what is the best connection type <??> to use?
I can normally, he says, follow examples pretty well so if you know of an app doing similar point me to it or alternatively if you know of a tutorial doing similar, point me toward that ...
any other comments or suggestions appreciated.
//al

Dead project. Decided that my interest wasn't what I thought it would be and I have different things to do with my time.