HttpWebRequest timeout handling

Question

I have a really simple question. I am uploading files to a server using HTTP POST. The thing is I need to specially handle connection timeouts and add a bit of a waiting algorithm after a timeout has occurred to relive the server. My code is pretty simple: ``` HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("SomeURI"); request.Method = "POST"; request.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"; request.KeepAlive = true; request.Accept = "*/*"; request.Timeout = 300000; request.AllowWriteStreamBuffering = false; try { using (HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse()) { WebHeaderCollection headers = response.Headers; using (Stream Answer = response.GetResponseStream()) { // Handle. } } } catch (WebException e) { if (Timeout_exception) { //Handle timeout exception } } ``` I omitted the file reading code as it is not our concern. Now I need to make sure that once a WebException is thrown, I filter the exception to see if it is indeed a timeout exception. I…

Accepted Answer

You can look at `WebException.Status`. The `WebExceptionStatus` enum has a `Timeout` flag:

```
try
{
   using (HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
   {
      WebHeaderCollection headers = response.Headers;    
      using (Stream answer = response.GetResponseStream())
      {
          // Do stuff
      }
   }
}
catch (WebException e)
{
   if (e.Status == WebExceptionStatus.Timeout)
   {
      // Handle timeout exception
   }
   else throw;
}
```

Using C# 6 exception filters can come in handy here:

```
try
{
    var request = WebRequest.Create("http://www.google.com");
    using (HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
    {
        WebHeaderCollection headers = response.Headers;
        using (Stream answer = response.GetResponseStream())
        {
            // Do stuff
        }
    }
}
catch (WebException e) when (e.Status == WebExceptionStatus.Timeout)
{
    // If we got here, it was a timeout exception.
}
```

HttpWebRequest timeout handling

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