se ha qualcuno potesse interessare ho trovato la soluzione:
Dim ftpWebReq As Net.FtpWebRequest = CType(Net.WebRequest.Create(cartella), Net.FtpWebRequest)
ftpWebReq.Method = Net.WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory
ftpWebReq.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("user", "pass")
Dim ftpWebResp As Net.FtpWebResponse = CType(ftpWebReq.GetResponse(), Net.FtpWebResponse)
Dim streamer As IO.Stream = ftpWebResp.GetResponseStream()
Dim reader As New IO.StreamReader(streamer)
MessageBox.Show(reader.ReadToEnd(), "FTP")