Tcp/Ip Socket connections in .NET

Dim client As New TcpClient()
client.Connect(server, port)

Dim stream As NetworkStream = client.GetStream()
stream.Write(request)
stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.length)

// Output buffer and return results...

int bytes_read = 0;
while (bytes_read < buffer.Length)
   bytes_read += stream.Read(buffer, bytes_read, buffer.length - bytes_read);

int bytes_read = 0;
try
{
   int i = 0;
   while ( 0 < (i = stream.Read(buffer, bytes_read, buffer.Length - bytes_read) )
      bytes_read += i;
}
catch  (Exception e)
{
//recover
}
finally
{
if (stream != null)
   stream.Close();
}

string response;

TcpClient client = new TcpClient();
client.Connect(server, port);
using (NetworkStream ns = c.GetStream())
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
    ns.Write(request);

    byte[] buffer = new buffer[512];
    int bytes = 0;

    while(ns.DataAvailable)
    {
        bytes = ns.Read(buffer,0, buffer.Length);
        ms.Write(buffer, 0, bytes);
    }

    response = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(ms.ToArray());
}