Best pratices for connections management

[Frédéric Mériot]

Hi,
I d'like to know how to deal with mysql connections in the best way.

Today, I use an include file which create a connection to my database :

global $mylink;
$dbuser = "***";
$dbpwd = "***";
$dbhost = "***";
$dbname="***";
if(!$mylink)
{
$mylink = mysqli_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpwd);
mysqli_select_db ($mylink,$dbname);
return $mylink;
}

Is it a good way?

I'am entierly recoding my site using Pear:DB and passing my data model to an object oriented model.

Do you recommend to continue to deal with a global connection or must I create connections inside my classes?

Thanks.