(Sorry for this perhaps stupid question, but I really don't know how to do it).
My objective is to set up an automated test environment to evaluate how good is an IDS-like appliance that has been built by a friend of mine.

I need to set up kind of script that sends various http requests to one or more websites reachable on the Internet. Of course I don't want to do this manually, and I need to process various types and lengths of http requests. I know pretty well C and Visual Basic. Is there any way I can automate the sending of http requests via these languages, or do I need other environments ?

Thank you very much.

Jamesmartin100