POP3 Implementation problem

Ok so I tried the POP3 Implementation code to retrieve e-mail from Gmail. I tried the code I got from a link which was suggested from another thread. I'm supposed to receive responses like +OK or -Err but the problem is this is there's this odd characters that shows up in my MsgBox.

This is my code:

Dim _server As TcpClient
Dim _netstream As NetworkStream
Dim _stmreader As StreamReader
Dim _senddata() As Byte
Dim _ssl As Net.Security.SslStream
Dim _user, _password As String

Try
_server = New TcpClient("pop.gmail.com", 995)
_netstream = _server.GetStream
_ssl = New Net.Security.SslStream(_server.GetStream())
DirectCast(_ssl, Net.Security.SslStream).AuthenticateAsClient("pop.gmail.com")
_stmreader = New StreamReader(_server.GetStream)
Catch _ex As Exception
MsgBox(_ex.Message)
Exit Sub
End Try

_user = "[email protected]"
_password = "password"

_senddata = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(("USER" + _user.Trim + vbCrLf).ToCharArray())
_netstream.Write(_senddata, 0, _senddata.Length)
_senddata = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(("PASS" + _password.Trim + vbCrLf).ToCharArray())
_netstream.Write(_senddata, 0, _senddata.Length)
_senddata = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(("STAT" + vbCrLf).ToCharArray())
_netstream.Write(_senddata, 0, _senddata.Length)
MsgBox(_stmreader.ReadLine)

Please help me, I don't know where I got the code wrong...

Thread moved from the 'CodeBank VB.Net' forum (which is for you to post working code examples, not questions) to the 'VB.Net' forum

Maybe it is the encoding that is different

Thanks for the move... I'm sorry for posting at the wrong forum...

Encoding? I'm sorry but I'm new to this... are you saying that there's something wrong with the "System.Text.Encoding" code? So what am I suppose to change?

"Odd character" ??? as opposed to the "Even character" ??? since you didn't provide an example, we're just shooting in the dark... there could be a couple of reasons ... one of which is the encoding... the other is the font of the text box... meanwhile there is a third reason not related to the other two...

-tg

I would be amazed if ASCII encoding was required here. I've programmed for GMail a few times and never used anything other than default encoding.