<p>If I create an HTTP <code>java.net.URL</code> and then call <code>openConnection()</code> on it, does it necessarily imply that an HTTP post is going to happen?  I know that <code>openStream()</code> implies a GET.  If so, how do you perform one of the other HTTP verbs without having to work with the raw socket layer?</p>

No it does not. But if the protocol of the URL is HTTP, you'll get a
```
HttpURLConnection
```
as a return object. This class has a
```
setRequestMethod
```
method to specify which HTTP method you want to use.
If you want to do more sophisticated stuff you're probably better off using a library like
Jakarta HttpClient
.