Mine

Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Text

Public Class irc
    Private TcpClient As New System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient()
    Private networkStream As NetworkStream
    Public Function connect(ByVal server As String, ByVal port As Integer)
        TcpClient.Connect(server, port)
        networkStream = TcpClient.GetStream()
        If networkStream.CanWrite And networkStream.CanRead Then
            Return "OK"
        Else
            If Not networkStream.CanRead Then
                TcpClient.Close()
                Return "cannot not write data to this stream"
            ElseIf Not networkStream.CanWrite Then
                TcpClient.Close()
                Return "cannot read data from this stream"
            Else
                Return "something batshit crazy happened"
            End If
        End If
    End Function
    Public Sub write(ByVal data As String)
        ' Do a simple write.
        Dim sendBytes As [Byte]() = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Is anybody there")
        NetworkStream.Write(sendBytes, 0, sendBytes.Length)
    End Sub
    Public Function read()
        ' Read the NetworkStream into a byte buffer.
        Dim bytes(TcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize) As Byte
        If (TcpClient.Available > 0) Then
            networkStream.Read(bytes, 0, CInt(TcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize))
            ' Output the data received from the host to the console.
            Dim returndata As String = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes)
            Return returndata
        Else
            Return "NODATA"
        End If
        

    End Function
End Class