but how complicated is network code in VB?

There is no network code in VB itself. Unless I call the IE DLL, there's no functions for talking on the network. And I don't see a way to do what you're describing using the IE DLL. They don't expose it to me a that low a level. The lowest function I've got AFAIK is URLDownloadToFile.

If anyone has ACTUAL EXAMPLE CODE which shows how to do otherwise (as opposed to "how hard could it be" armchair theories), I'm all ears.