Thanks. I didn't realize i had not responded to this post.

My thanks again,

>Here's a simple class we use to send and retrieve data from exp.
>
>The New method has 3 params (the URL of the service, the username you use, the password your account uses)
>
>Let me know if this helps.
>
>Rodman
>
>
>Imports System.Net
>Imports System.Net.WebRequest
>Imports System.IO
>
>Public Class cktest
>
> Private _WebReq As HttpWebRequest
> Private _WebReqSet As Boolean = False
> Private _cUrl As String = ""
> Private _cUserName As String = ""
> Private _cPassword As String = ""
>
> Private ReadOnly Property WebReq() As HttpWebRequest
> Get
> If Me._WebReqSet = False Then
> Me._WebReq = CType(WebRequest.Create(Me._cUrl), HttpWebRequest)
> With Me._WebReq
> .Method = "POST"
> .ContentType = "text/xml"
> .AllowWriteStreamBuffering = True
> End With
> Me._WebReqSet = True
>
> End If
> Return Me._WebReq
> End Get
> End Property
>
>
>
> Public Function GetCheckPointText(ByVal cInputPacket As String)
> '-- copy contents of request into a byte array
> Dim buf As Byte()
> buf = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(cInputPacket)
>
> 'Write the contents of the Byte Array (the UTF-8 encoded byte representation
> 'of the XML string) to the HttpWebRequest's RequestStream. This is the data that
> 'will be posted to the target URL. The GetRequestStream method is used to obtain
> 'a reference to the HttpWebRequest's request stream.
> Dim HttpStream As Stream
> HttpStream = Me.WebReq.GetRequestStream()
> HttpStream.Write(buf, 0, buf.Length)
> HttpStream.Flush()
> HttpStream.Close()
>
> Dim HttpWResp As HttpWebResponse = _
> CType(Me.WebReq.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
>
> Dim receiveStream As Stream = HttpWResp.GetResponseStream()
>
> 'Use the GetEncoding Static method of the System.Text.Encoding object to
> 'instantiate a UTF-8 Encoding object.
> Dim encode As System.Text.Encoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8")
>
> ' Pipe the response stream to a higher level stream reader with the required
> 'encoding format. The StreamReader object will be used to access the contents
> 'of the ResponseStream.
> Dim readStream As New StreamReader(receiveStream, encode)
>
> '--read the result to the end now
> Dim cReturnValue As String = readStream.ReadToEnd()
>
> '-- close shop
> receiveStream.Close()
> readStream.Close()
> HttpWResp.Close()
>
> Return cReturnValue
>
> End Function
>
> Public Sub New(ByVal cUrl As String, ByVal UserName As String, ByVal Password As String)
>
> Me._cUrl = cUrl
> Me._cPassword = Password
> Me._cUserName = UserName
>
>
> End Sub
>
>
>End Class