xml in vb.net

in vb 6 i used the msxml2.dll to post xml documents to a server and received the response back.

how do i go about doing that in vb.net? there is a wealth of new things in vb.net and im sure that it is quite easy but i dont really know where to look.

here is how my code looks in vb 6:

[CODE]
Private xmlHttp As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP40
Private xmlDocReq As New MSXML2.DOMDocument40
Private xmlRoot As MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement

Dim xmlItem As MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement
Dim xmlItemChild As MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement

xmlDocReq.async = False

xmlDocReq.loadXML("my xml document")

xmlHttp.open("POST", "http://ip address", False)
xmlHttp.setRequestHeader("HOST", "host")
xmlHttp.setRequestHeader("User-Agent", "Ingenico/1.00")
xmlHttp.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/xml")

xmlHttp.send(xmlDocReq.xml)
[CODE]

this does work in vb.net if i reference the msxml2.dll but i am sure there must be a way from within vb.net. im also trying to put this in a web service but by using the code above, it just hangs on the xmlHttp.send part and does not return my xml response.

any help would be very appreciated.

thank you