>Can anyone tell me how I can obtain data from teh internet via vfp?

Depends on what you mean.

1)If you want to read a webpage into a string wwipstuff from www.west-wind.com

2)If you want to read XML from a website
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~PracticalXmlPart1
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~PracticalXmlPart2

3)If you want to access VFP tables that are on a webserver, there are several ways. Here is some reading:
http://www.west-wind.com/Articles.asp
http://www.afpweb.com/
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~ASPandVFP
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~UsingWebConnect
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~MovingAnAppToTheWebWithWebConnect