logging on to websites via vb app

I have some very basic knowledge about vb and i was wondering if what im wanting to do is possible..and what i need to know to code for it. Basically I want to create an app in vb that can be used to login to a website i.e. hotmail, yahoo with username and password fields. Also something nice to add would be info returning to vb such as "sucessful login". What do i need to understand and learn to do this and what do i use for it.. winsock? API? Maybe something like a winsock form submission? or can it even be done? Sorry if i wasn't clear i'll explain more if needed.

Using Winsock will probably be harder than it needs to be.
VB6 does have a webbrowser control that you can use/manipulate in your program.

ok.. i thought the webbrowser control was just for displaying the websites on a vb app? Also i read something on httpwebrequest.. is that the direction i need to be going?

It is a direction I would recommend you investigate, yes. :)

ok i think httpwebrequest is the right path.. but im wondering if i need to use it in asp.net or if it will work in vb?

also, i think im doing something wrong with httpwebrequest code. when i type in some code that other people have posted online using httpwebrequest, it doesnt recognize it and errors are all over. this also happens with using code with things like using system and system.iostream.

Ok.. nevermind i found out i should be using C# instead of vb for those codes. I still havent found a good code to login to a form with a password and username. If anyone has some good exampled I would appriciate it.

VB will work for what you are looking for.
ASP has nothing to do with logging into another website. The only thing you need to know is the HTML form field names and if they are requesting a post or get.
If you want to do it in C# ask in the C# forum or goto http://pscode.com/ and look for some sample code.