This works:

Dim request As WebRequest = WebRequest.Create(_ur_l)
Dim response As WebResponse = request.GetResponse()
Dim reader As IO.StreamReader = New IO.StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd)

My (currently absent colleague) wrote a webservice that works fine in Excel vba. You run the webrequest function with an ("GET"like) url and it returns a value. He told me that he returns the value in a php echo statement, and I can see it when I navigate the url from a browser.

In vb.net I execute a webrequest.create and then a request.GetResponse. But I do not find the value.

Cannot ask what I'm missing, because I guess I'm showing my ignorance on the matter, but can anybody put me on the right track?