here is the code, basically:

----------------------
Dim HTMLString As String
Dim WebClient As New System.Net.WebClient()
Dim querystring As New System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection ()

querystring.Add("login", User)
querystring.Add("p***wd", P***)
querystring.Add(".persistent", "y")
querystring.Add(".save", "Sign In")

WebClient.QueryString = querystring

HTMLString =
System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(WebClient.Dow nloadData(https://login.bl
ah.blah.com/))

-------------------------------------

everything authenticates correctly...the website is a form with login
information...it accepts the user and p***wd correcly...but the website uses
cookies to operate...so when you login, it creates cookies on the
machine...but when i use the code above, the only thing that is returned is
an error from the website saying "cannot sign-in, cookies were rejected by
your browser"....how can I get around this?...or is there a better way in VB
..net to do what I am trying to accomplish. Thanks in advance!