WebRequest Class

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.webrequest%28VS.80%29.aspx
Imports System
 Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Text
Namespace Examples.System.Net
     Public Class WebRequestGetExample

        Public Shared Sub Main()
             ' Create a request for the URL. 		
            Dim request As WebRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://www.contoso.com/default.html")
             ' If required by the server, set the credentials.
            request.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
            ' Get the response.
             Dim response As HttpWebResponse = CType(request.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
            ' Display the status.
             Console.WriteLine(response.StatusDescription)
            ' Get the stream containing content returned by the server.
            Dim dataStream As Stream = response.GetResponseStream()
             ' Open the stream using a StreamReader for easy access.
            Dim reader As New StreamReader(dataStream)
             ' Read the content.
            Dim responseFromServer As String = reader.ReadToEnd()
             ' Display the content.
            Console.WriteLine(responseFromServer)
            ' Cleanup the streams and the response.
             reader.Close()
            dataStream.Close()
            response.Close()
        End Sub 'Main
     End Class 'WebRequestGetExample
End Namespace