As the other poster mentioned, .Net provides an excellent manor for accessing databases(SQL Server and others). I'd recommend starting out working with a MS Access database as your data source, unless you're already familiar with SQL server.

As for learning how to write the code, I've only used the help that came with the VS.Net. You might want to pick up a book on the subject. The .NET code, however, is only half the battle.

You will also need to famliarize yourself with SQL. I personally used some content from this this site (http://sqlzoo.net/) in addition to a few books. Your results may vary depending on how well you pick up technologies from self-instruction.