C# HttpWebRequest times out after two server 500 errors

Question

After I make two C# HttpWebRequests that throw an exception because of "(500) Internal Server Error 500", the third attempt throws a time out exception. Why doesn't it throw another (500) Internal Server Error exception?

When I restart my application, it throws two 500 errors and then starts timing out again.

This is my code:

GetPages GetPages = new GetPages();
string test = GetPages.GetPage(); /* Exception: (500) Internal Server Error */
GetPages.Dispose();

GetPages GetPages = new GetPages();
string test = GetPages.GetPage();  /* Exception: (500) Internal Server Error */
GetPages.Dispose();

GetPages GetPages = new GetPages();
string test = GetPages.GetPage();  /* Exception: time out, why? */
GetPages.Dispose();

This is GetPages class and GetPage method:

namespace MyNamespace
{
    class GetPages
    {
        public string GetPage()
        {
            this.httpRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://myurl");

            try
            {
                StringBuilder postData = new StringBuilder(100);
                postData.Append("test=test");
                byte[] dataArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(postData.ToString());

                httpRequest.CachePolicy = new HttpRequestCachePolicy(HttpRequestCacheLevel.NoCacheNoStore);
                httpRequest.KeepAlive = false;
                httpRequest.Proxy = null;
                httpRequest.Method = "POST";
                httpRequest.Timeout = 10;
                httpRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

                httpRequest.ContentLength = dataArray.Length;

                using (this.requestStream = httpRequest.GetRequestStream())
                {
                    requestStream.Write(dataArray, 0, dataArray.Length);
                    requestStream.Flush();
                    requestStream.Close();

                    this.webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)httpRequest.GetResponse();

                    Stream responseStream = webResponse.GetResponseStream();
                    StreamReader responseReader = new System.IO.StreamReader(responseStream, Encoding.UTF8);
                    String responseString = responseReader.ReadToEnd();


                    MessageBox.Show(responseString);
                    return responseString;
                }
            }

            catch (Exception e)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
                return "FAIL";
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            System.GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
        }
    }
}

UPDATE

Thanks you all for helping out. I have not been able to solve the issue.

The dispose method is gone now.

I have made HttpWebRequest httpRequest, HttpWebResponse webResponse and Stream requestStream local and am using the following using statements:

using (webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)httpRequest.GetResponse())
{
    using (Stream responseStream = webResponse.GetResponseStream())
    {
        using (StreamReader responseReader = new System.IO.StreamReader(responseStream, Encoding.UTF8))
        {
            responseString = responseReader.ReadToEnd();
        }
    }
}

Another update

This is the entire GetPage method now:

public string GetPage()
{
    HttpWebRequest httpRequest;
    HttpWebResponse webResponse;
    Stream requestStream;

    try
    {
        StringBuilder postData = new StringBuilder(100);
        postData.Append("test=test");
        byte[] dataArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(postData.ToString());

        httpRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://myurl");

        httpRequest.Proxy = null;
        httpRequest.Method = "POST";
        httpRequest.Timeout = 10;
        httpRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

        httpRequest.ContentLength = dataArray.Length;

        using (requestStream = httpRequest.GetRequestStream())
        {
            /* this is never reached when the time out exception starts 
            so the error seems to be related to too many GetRequestStreams */

            requestStream.Write(dataArray, 0, dataArray.Length);

            webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)httpRequest.GetResponse();

            /* this is never reached when the 500 server error occurs */

            String responseString = "";
            using (Stream responseStream = webResponse.GetResponseStream())
            {
                using (StreamReader responseReader = new System.IO.StreamReader(responseStream, Encoding.UTF8))
                {
                    responseString = responseReader.ReadToEnd();
                    return responseString;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    catch (Exception e)
    {
        return "FAIL";
    }

    return "...";
}

** SOLVED!! ** httpRequest was not getting abort()'ed. In the catch() block I have added httpRequest.abort(), now it works correctly.

Answer 1

I suspect this is the problem:

this.webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)httpRequest.GetResponse();
Stream responseStream = webResponse.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader responseReader = new StreamReader(responseStream, Encoding.UTF8);
String responseString = responseReader.ReadToEnd();

You're not disposing of any of these disposable objects. That means the connection to the web server will be maintained until finalization, so the connection pool (of two connections per server) won't allow any other requests.

I suggest that:

• You move the GetResponse call out of the using statement for the request stream
• You remove the explicit calls to Flush and Close for the request stream (disposing of it is good enough)
• You make webResponse and webRequest local variables instead of instance variables unless you really need them later, in which case you should dispose of them in your Dispose method.
• You use using statements for the WebResponse, Stream, and StreamReader. (The last isn't strictly necessary, as disposing of the stream is good enough.)
• You make GetPages not implement IDisposable unless you really need it to.

Answer 2

HTTP protocol defines that only two connection can be made at the same time to the same server. Close the responseStream after successful or unsuccessful reading.