Member Avatar for jpaterson2525

im trying to read a website and i keep getting the exception "underlying connection was closed"

...
WebClient w = new WebClient();
Stream s = w.openRead(addr);
...

and yes addr has a 'http://' prefix

why am i getting this exception every time?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jpaterson2525

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary: the exception you saw often means your process could not complete an HTTP request because the network path was being intercepted or blocked. As found, switching to a proxy fixed it — which usually indicates the host machine or corporate network requires a proxy (sometimes with authentication). The two-line WebClient approach mentioned by works when no proxy is required; ’s WebRequest example is fine when you need explicit request/response control, but both need correct proxy settings in restricted networks.

Quick troubleshooting checklist

  • Inspect the thrown exception: cast to WebException, log Status, Response and any InnerException text.
  • Confirm outside the app: open the URL in the same machine’s browser. If the browser prompts for proxy/auth or fails, the problem is network-level.
  • Check system proxy: Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings or run netsh winhttp show proxy.
  • Capture traffic with Fiddler/Wireshark to see whether a proxy or reset is happening.

How to handle proxies from code

  • Detect whether a system proxy will be used and set credentials for it (use the current Windows credentials for NTLM/Kerberos proxies):
    IWebProxy sysProxy = WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy ?? WebRequest.GetSystemWebProxy();
Uri target = new Uri(address);
Uri proxyForTarget = sysProxy.GetProxy(target);
bool usesProxy = proxyForTarget != target;
sysProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

    Assign that proxy to your request/client or set sysProxy.Credentials so authenticated proxies succeed.

If you need to force a direct connection (for testing), bypass the proxy in code or in system settings. For modern HTTPS endpoints also check TLS versions (adjust ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol if your runtime defaults are too old). If problems persist, run a network trace to confirm whether the proxy is rejecting connections or the remote server is closing them.

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Member Avatar for Mitja Bonca

1st of all, you have to add a new namespace (using System.Net;)
Now I will show you a simple example of how to get the website`s text:

List<string> list = new List<string>();
        private void GetAllText()
        {
            WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create("http://www.daniweb.com");
            WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
            {
                while (!sr.EndOfStream)
                    list.Add(sr.ReadLine()); //line by line it writes into a list<T>.
            }
            ShowingText();
        }
Member Avatar for Diamonddrake

That is an odd example Mitja, you only need 2 lines of code for this, you defiantly don't want to separate all the strings into a generic list like that. And its unnecessary to handle the request and response like that. Just use your framework classes.

// Create web client.
        WebClient client = new WebClient();

        // Download string.
        string value = client.DownloadString("http://www.daniweb.com/");
Edited by Diamonddrake because: n/a
Member Avatar for Mitja Bonca

Ok, I put an example which I used ones - I had to seperate the lines of code.

Member Avatar for jpaterson2525

my code compiles why would you assume that this is a compiler issue... its the webclient class thats not working correctly im trying to figure out why

Member Avatar for jpaterson2525

solved was using a proxy lol

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