Visual Basic function to fetch a response from a web server

httpget.vb

''' <summary>
''' Fetches the response from a website or server, with the provided URL
''' </summary>
Public Shared Function HttpGet(ByVal url As String) As String
    ' Create the HTTP request
    Dim req As HttpWebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(url)

    ' Open a connection (stream) using the request
    Dim stream As Stream = req.GetResponse.GetResponseStream()

    ' Create an object (StreamReader) to read from the stream
    Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(stream)

    ' Read to the end of the stream
    Dim response As String = sr.ReadToEnd()

    ' Close the stream
    stream.Close()

    ' Return the response
    Return response
End Function