Industrial automation with network remote, please help

[BeanAnimal]

Hello,

I am in the process of using Visual Basic 6 to automate a reef aquarium. The I/O is via PCI and USB controllers hooked to a local PC. I wish to be able to accomplish several things and need some help and advice. This project is way behind and I need help urgently.

The program has to be very stable due to the fact that it will be running a reef aquarium. The code is basically a "game loop" style setup that uses variables read into memory from a DB and then acted upon by timers, Interupts from outside sensors, and pr-programed schedules. Data is also logged to the database at user setable intervals.

Obviously the database is not queired for each loop iteration, as this would be insanley resource intensive.

I would like the ability to:

1) Control some aspects of the software via the web through a simple forms type of interface. EX turn outputs on or off.

2) Gain detailed control of the software via en activeX dll over the web. EX more granular control of the software with much of the functionality of the Server side application.

3) FTP or Telent into my application to control it via the command line.

I have looked at winsock, but keep reading horror stories about it's stability. I have been told to use vb.net but don't have any idea what I would be using it for. I have played with the 2005 beta but use it as I would VB6 because I know no better. Using ASP to simply update values in the database is not going to work becuas the database is only queired when data is being logged.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Regards,
Bill