using a small java program to download a web page
 

I would like to be able to provide a program a string representing a URL and have that program go out to the INTERNET, grab the specified file, and save it locally to my hard drive. I am sure this is not very complicated but I am not sure where to start. My Java book didn't really cover it. Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure if this will be what you want, because it's not using java. I would use wget.

wget -r websiteurl


see this for details

man wget

if u want to study the code ...
i mean to know how to write a code in Java to get a file from web
then go "planet-source code "
search there otherwise i 'll give u the code

Start with the java.net packages. There's sure to be a chapter in your 'book'.