sockets in java are fairly simple, as is reading/writing to/from files .
Creating forms is trickier yet still easy once you get to grips with the swing api
if you want i`ll send you some java code which does sockets ( multithreaded sockets at that too
) , read/write files and a basic intro to swing
Still you are in a bit of a pickle with that machine.
i dont regard Vb as a -language- though personally