Is it possible to read from a url into a System.IO.Stream object?

Question

I am attempting to read from a url into a System.IO.Stream object. I tried to use

Dim stream as Stream = New FileStream(msgURL, FileMode.Open)

but I get an error that URI formats are not supported with FileStream objects. Is there some method I can use that inherits from System.IO.Stream that is able to read from a URL?

Answer 1

VB.Net:

Dim req As WebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create("url here")
Using stream As Stream = req.GetResponse().GetResponseStream()

End Using

C#:

var req = System.Net.WebRequest.Create("url here");
using (Stream stream = req.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())
{

}

Answer 2

Use WebClient.OpenRead :

Using wc As New WebClient()
    Using stream As Stream = wc.OpenRead(msgURL)
        ...
    End Using
End Using

Answer 3

Yes, you can use a HttpWebRequest object to get a response stream:

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse(); 
Stream receiveStream = response.GetResponseStream();
// read the stream
receiveStream.Close();
response.Close();

(Stripped down and simplifed from the docs).