public static StringBuffer makeRequest(String a_sURL, Hashtable<?, ?> a_htParameters)
     {
          
          String sURL = a_sURL;
          String sParameters = "";
          boolean bFirstParameter = true;
          StringBuffer sbResp = new StringBuffer();
          
          Enumeration enumKeys = a_htParameters.keys();
          
          while(enumKeys.hasMoreElements())
          {
               String sParameterName = (String)enumKeys.nextElement();
               String sParameter = (String)a_htParameters.get(sParameterName);
               
               if(bFirstParameter)
               {
                    bFirstParameter = false;
               }
               else
               {
                    sParameters += "&";
               }
               
               try
               {
                    //sURL += sParameterName + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(sParameter, "UTF-8");
                    sParameters += sParameterName + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(sParameter, "UTF-8");
               }
               catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e)
               {
                    System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
               }
               
          }

          System.out.println("Calling URL: " + sURL);
          System.out.println("With Parameters: " + sParameters);

          try
          {
               URL oURL = new URL(sURL);
               URLConnection urlCon = oURL.openConnection();
               
               urlCon.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
               
               urlCon.setDoOutput(true);
               urlCon.setDoInput(true);
               OutputStreamWriter wr = new OutputStreamWriter(urlCon.getOutputStream());
               wr.write(sParameters);
               wr.flush();
               wr.close();
               
               BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlCon.getInputStream()));
               
               String inputLine;

               while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) 
               {
                    sbResp.append(inputLine);
               }
               
               in.close();
               
               System.out.println("Response: " + sbResp.toString());
               
          }
          catch (MalformedURLException e)
          {
                System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
          }
          catch (IOException e)
          {
                System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
          }    
          
          System.out.println("\n");
          
          return sbResp;
          
     }