The documentation provided by the people here has been somewhat
helpful, but it appears I am missing the boat somewhere.

I have a web service I designed in VS 2005 that right now is doing
nothing more than returning an XML stream to a client.  Eventually, it
will post an HTTP request to an outside server, but I'm trying to
learn VS 2005 as I go so I'm right now trying just to get a web
service to post to and it posts back what you post to it through
SOAP.  This is the code:

Imports System.Web.Services
Imports System.Web.Services.Protocols
Imports System.ComponentModel

<System.Web.Services.WebService(Namespace:="http://badger.com/")> _
<System.Web.Services.WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo:=WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)>
_
<ToolboxItem(False)> _
Public Class Service1
   Inherits System.Web.Services.WebService

   <WebMethod()> _
   Public Function AuthorizeAPI(ByVal Input1 As InformationToPass) As
ReturnParams
       Dim rp As New ReturnParams
       'Return "Hi, this page is served by Brent White's own system
and can be looked at " & Input1.SecondParam & " times."
       'Return Input1.SerialNumber
       'Return Input1.Dev_SerialNumber
       rp.SJName = Input1.SJName
       rp.Email = Input1.Email
       'Return Input1.BillStreet
       'Return Input1.BillStreet2
       'Return Input1.BillStreet3
       'Return Input1.BillStreet4
       'Return Input1.BillCity
       'Return Input1.BillState
       'Return Input1.BillZip
       'Return Input1.BillCountry
       'Return Input1.BillPhone
       'Return Input1.BillFax
       'Return Input1.ShipName
       'Return Input1.ShipStreet
       'Return Input1.ShipStreet2
       'Return Input1.ShipStreet3
       'Return Input1.ShipStreet4
       'Return Input1.ShipCity
       'Return Input1.ShipState
       'Return Input1.ShipZip
       'Return Input1.ShipCountry
       'Return Input1.ShipPhone
       'Return Input1.ShipFax
       'Return Input1.AccountNumber
       'Return Input1.MonthExpr
       'Return Input1.YearExpr
       'Return Input1.CVV2
       'Return Input1.TransactionAmount
       'Return Input1.SalesTax
       'Return Input1.CustomerCode
       'Return Input1.PONumber
       'Return Input1.ShippingAmount
       'Return Input1.SummaryCommodityCode
       'Return Input1.OrderString_lvl3
       Return rp
   End Function

End Class

Public Class InformationToPass
   Public SerialNumber As String = "000399239784"
   Public Dev_SerialNumber As String = "100008901765"
   Public SJName As String
   Public Email As String
   Public BillStreet As String
   Public BillStreet2 As String
   Public BillStreet3 As String
   Public BillStreet4 As String
   Public BillCity As String
   Public BillState As String
   Public BillZip As String
   Public BillCountry As String
   Public BillPhone As String
   Public BillFax As String
   Public ShipName As String
   Public ShipStreet As String
   Public ShipStreet2 As String
   Public ShipStreet3 As String
   Public ShipStreet4 As String
   Public ShipCity As String
   Public ShipState As String
   Public ShipZip As String
   Public ShipCountry As String
   Public ShipPhone As String
   Public ShipFax As String
   Public OrderNumber As String
   Public AccountNumber As String
   Public MonthExpr As String
   Public YearExpr As String
   Public CVV2 As String
   Public TransactionAmount As String
   Public SalesTax As String
   Public CustomerCode As String
   Public PONumber As String
   Public ShippingAmount As String
   Public SummaryCommodityCode As String
   Public OrderString_lvl3 As String
End Class

Public Class ReturnParams
   Public SJName As String
   Public Email As String
End Class

web.config:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration>

   <configSections>
       <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings"
type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System,
Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
           <section name="Testing.My.MySettings"
type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System,
Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"
requirePermission="false" />
       </sectionGroup>
   </configSections>
   <appSettings/>
   <connectionStrings/>

   <system.web>
       <!--
           Set compilation debug="true" to insert debugging
           symbols into the compiled page. Because this
           affects performance, set this value to true only
           during development.

           Visual Basic options:
           Set strict="true" to disallow all data type conversions
           where data loss can occur.
           Set explicit="true" to force declaration of all variables.
       -->
       <compilation debug="true" strict="false" explicit="true" />
       <pages>
           <namespaces>
               <clear />
               <add namespace="System" />
               <add namespace="System.Collections" />
               <add namespace="System.Collections.Specialized" />
               <add namespace="System.Configuration" />
               <add namespace="System.Text" />
               <add namespace="System.Text.RegularExpressions" />
               <add namespace="System.Web" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.Caching" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.SessionState" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.Security" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.Profile" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.UI" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts" />
               <add namespace="System.Web.UI.HtmlControls" />
           </namespaces>
       </pages>
       <!--
           The <authentication> section enables configuration
           of the security authentication mode used by
           ASP.NET to identify an incoming user.
       -->
       <!--
           The <customErrors> section enables configuration
           of what to do if/when an unhandled error occurs
           during the execution of a request. Specifically,
           it enables developers to configure html error pages
           to be displayed in place of a error stack trace.

       <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly"
defaultRedirect="GenericErrorPage.htm">
           <error statusCode="403" redirect="NoAccess.htm" />
           <error statusCode="404" redirect="FileNotFound.htm" />
       </customErrors>
       -->
     <webServices>
       <protocols>
         <add name="HttpGet"/>
         <add name="HttpPost"/>
         <add name="HttpSoap"/>
       </protocols>
     </webServices>

   </system.web>
   <applicationSettings>
       <Testing.My.MySettings>
           <setting name="Testing_localhost_Service1"
serializeAs="String">
               <value>http://localhost/Service1.asmx</value>
           </setting>
       </Testing.My.MySettings>
   </applicationSettings>
</configuration>

And this is the VB code that forms the client:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml

Module Module1

   Sub Main()
       Dim msg As String
       Dim strm As Stream
       Dim strmrdr As System.IO.StreamReader
       Dim http As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP30
       Dim serviceurl As String = "http://localhost/Service1.asmx"
       msg = "<soap:Envelope "
       msg = msg & "xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-
instance'"
       msg = msg & "xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'"
       msg = msg & "xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/
envelope'>"
       msg = msg & "<soap:Body>"
       msg = msg & "<AuthorizeAPI xmlns='http://badger.com'>"
       msg = msg & "<Input1>"
       msg = msg & "<SJName>Me</SJName>"
       msg = msg & "<Email>brent_white@roadrunner.com</Email>"
       msg = msg & "</Input1>"
       msg = msg & "</AuthorizeAPI>"
       msg = msg & "</Soap:Body>"
       msg = msg & "</Soap:Envelope>"

       http.open("POST", serviceurl, False)
       http.setRequestHeader("SOAPACTION", """http://badger.com/
AuthorizeAPI""")
       http.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml")
       http.send(msg)
       Console.Write(http.responseStream.ToString)
       strm = http.responseStream
       strmrdr = New StreamReader(strm)
       'Dim xmlreader As New XmlTextReader(strm)
       'Do While (xmlreader.Read())
       ' Select Case XmlReader.NodeType
       '     Case XmlNodeType.Element
       ' Console.Write("<" + XmlReader.Name)
       ' If XmlReader.HasAttributes Then 'If attributes exist
       ' While XmlReader.MoveToNextAttribute()
       ' 'Display attribute name and value.
       ' Console.Write(" {0}='{1}'", XmlReader.Name, XmlReader.Value)
       'End While
       'End If
       'Console.WriteLine(">")
       '    Case XmlNodeType.Text 'Display the text in each element.
       'Console.WriteLine(XmlReader.Value)
       '    Case XmlNodeType.EndElement 'Display end of element.
       'Console.Write("</" + XmlReader.Name)
       'Console.WriteLine(">")
       'End Select
       'Loop
       '        MsgBox(msg)
       'Console.Write(msg)
       Console.ReadKey()

   End Sub

End Module

First, I get a message on the console:  System.__ComObject

And I get a runtime error:

Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to class type
'System.IO.Stream'. Instances of types that represent COM components
cannot be cast to types that do not represent COM components; however
they can be cast to interfaces as long as the underlying COM component
supports QueryInterface calls for the IID of the interface.

What I want to do is pull the response into a stream reader so I can
make sure what I'm getting from the web service is what I am expecting.