I never did any work with vb.net. But here is few things you need to understand.
1. You gave the world the access link for your database which can be accessed through phpmyadmin along with your password.(which i guess either stupid or its a test/learning site)
2. when you say server "stockinvestments.co.za" is your server not "stockinvestments.co.za/phpMyAdmin".
3. stockinvestments.co.za/ is an http server and /phpMyAdmin is uri. it is not even clear whether your mysql allows you to access from other then localhost.
3. phpMyAdmin is a php based application to do simple operation on mysql server but it is not any kind of service or server.
4. cn is a MySqlConnection connection not httpconnection.
if your mysql server is properly configured then you can access the server from outside world. But it is not I already have checked :) cause your username and password is also there............... if it is proper then your connection string would be
cn.ConnectionString = "server=server-name; user id= *************; password =*****************; database = stockin1_password"
and using your mysql client, I use only mysql commandline client, you can connection from anywhere on earth using those info.