| t you need. For example, look at the German Conrad site (I see you're Norwegian, I hope you grok enough German?) and follow the menus like this:
Home > Bauelemente, Bausätze > Automatisierungstechnik > Mess- & Regelungstechnik > Relais- und I/O-Karten
I guess you could make do with a USB 8-fold relay module and a USB 8-fold optocoupled input, that would still set you back over 110 euros. That's for something I would find slightly inflexible on one end, and too much (8 relays?) on another. Oh, and the mentioned relays don't handle mains voltage!
Then there's the programming interface. I know access to the serial port is at least possible under VB, I guess the same goes for the parallel port. I have no idea however how well the USB driver library of the above mentioned cards can be used from VB.
Probably you could find ready-made solutions that fit your needs better, but if you know (or want to learn) enough electronics for simple circuits, this could be a nice little project. Just be very careful with the mains voltage! (Covering my ass there).
From the aforemantioned ePanorama site, I would really recommend looking at this link. | 
