you can also connect to a mySQL server through odbc and use it just like it were access or ms sql... odbc makes it so you can switch between multiple database platforms and not change any of your code.. as long as the db supports the sql syntax you can pipe any commands through the connection and get back records.
I like
www.lunarpages.com for hosting... the use linux servers with mysql databases and the chilisoft asp implementation...plus it has the nice cpanel interface.