Windows App, connect to MS Access DB on Internet?

Question

Hi All,
What I would like to do, is to create on 'offline' windows application that connects and speaks to a Datasource that is online (stored on the internet somewere).
Ideally i'd like the database to be MS Access, and for my application to simply connect to this, but I've been told this does not work (and I have been unable to get this to work).
My work around so far has been do download the file each time the application starts up, then upload it after the user has finished, but this is not what I want, as I would like it to be able to be used by more than one person at once.
I've been told that web-services are the way to go. But after weeks and weeks of playing around, I am yet unable to even get Visual Studio 2010 to recognise a .asmx web service that i;ve uploaded to my free web server (www.somee.come - are my free hosts).
So any help/clarifcation would be fantastic, basically can I connect to a MS Access database directly from a windows application (if the database is stored on a web-server), secondly if i cannot do this, then what is the next best option?
If the best option is Web services can someone please explain how to do so in Visual Studio 2010? I;ve watched/read 25+ tutorials on web services, and even when my .asmx or .svc file has exactly the same code as the tutorial the service is not recognised by visual studio when i try to add a web reference (yet it works when i run it via my localhost!!!).
Anyway hopefully someone can help,
Thanks
David