public static Image LoadImageFromURL(string URL) 
      { 
         HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest) HttpWebRequest.Create(URL); 
         HttpWebResponse response = null; 
         BinaryReader br = null; 
         MemoryStream stream = null; 
         request.Timeout = 10000;   // 10 Seconds 
         try 
         { 
            int tmp = ServicePointManager.DefaultConnectionLimit; 
            response = (HttpWebResponse) request.GetResponse();  // i lock up on the second method call 
       
            br = new BinaryReader((response.GetResponseStream())); 
    
            byte[] buffer = new byte[256]; 
            stream = new MemoryStream(); 
    
            int length =0; 
    
            do 
            { 
               length = br.Read(buffer,0,256); 
               stream.Write(buffer,0,length); 
            } 
            while (length >0); 

            request.Abort(); 
            request = null; 
            response.Close(); 
            response = null; 
            return (Image)new Bitmap(stream); 
             
         } 
         catch(Exception e) 
         { 
            MessageBox.Show(e.Message.ToString()); 
            return null; 
         } 
         finally 
         { 
            if (response != null) 
            { 
               response.Close(); 
               response = null; 
            } 
         } 
      } 

   }