Monitor which thread is downloading url

Question

I have an application that downloading urls using threadPool in different threads, but recently I've read an article (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/Crawler.aspx) that it says HttpWebRequest.GetResponse() is working only in one thread and the other threads is waiting for that thread. first I want to know is it true ? how can i monitor which one of my threads is actually downloading with its status ?

Answer 1

I doubt that HttpWebRequest.GetResponse would block other threads - but you can verify that easily using tools such as Fiddler. You can launch fiddler and run your program. The request would appear in Fiddler as soon as your program makes it and you can quickly determine if they are simultaneous or one by one.

Answer 2

Yes, GetResponse is a blocking call (check MSDN) which can only return when the server replies or a request timeout occurs. After that, just check the status code and use GetResponseStream to start downloading the returning content. Like this:

HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
if (response.StatusCode == 200)
{
    Stream content = response.GetResponseStream();
    // Read the content and report the downloading progress...
    ...
}