Quote Originally Posted by DataMiser View Post
Umm not really. If memory serves VB2003 and Framework 1.1 did not come with a serial class at all. I had to buy a 3rd party tool in order to do some simple serial stuff in VB2003.

VB6 has the MSComm control which works fine in simple cases. I've used it on many projects for talking to printers, barcode readers and robotics. I also have a couple of 3rd party controls for VB6 that support the various transfer protocols such as X, Y, Z Modem and others.

As of VB2005 they added a serial class but still can be a bit tricky to use if you are coming over from VB6 due to the fact that it uses threading. Works very well once you get a handle on it.
TCP was easier to deal with in VB6 using the Winsock control but much more powerful in .Net using the Sockets Class
.NET has always supported ActiveX controls so anyone with VB6 installed could use any ActiveX control that came with VB6 in the VB.NET apps. Some still do, but probably should have migrated away from them by now.