php encryption

Here's the equation.

I have a visual basic program which calls a php web page and sends that page data (ie. URL) THe web page then manipulates the data via php.

What I need to to encrypt the variable in visual basic and once passed to php, have it decrypted.

I have found stuff for encrypting within the same platforms but nothing across platforms.

How do I encrypt in VB and decrypt in PHP with somethings that's a little more than a = z?

Thanks

Are you running your PHP on Windows or Linux? There are external encryption tools which you can call from within you PHP-script. I assume you can do this in VB as well. Search for something like that and then you can use the execute()-function in PHP. Problem solved I think.

How about sending the data via HTTP Post methods?
Or using SSL to create a secure a transaction?

Perhaps a completely alternate method? You could send data crossplatforms using XML Web Services (such as XML-RPC or SOAP)...

As a completely alternate route... D.I.Y! =)
Create your own algorithim using math functions compatable in both languages...