String2Byte

Private Shared Function GetBytes(str As String) As Byte()
    Dim bytes As Byte() = New Byte(str.Length * 2 - 1) {}
    System.Buffer.BlockCopy(str.ToCharArray(), 0, bytes, 0, bytes.Length)
    Return bytes
End Function

Private Shared Function GetString(bytes As Byte()) As String
    Dim chars As Char() = New Char(bytes.Length / 2 - 1) {}
    System.Buffer.BlockCopy(bytes, 0, chars, 0, bytes.Length)
    Return New String(chars)
End Function