title: WebRequest Exception in .NET
body: <p>I use this code snippet that verifies if the file specified in the URL exists and keep trying it every few seconds for every user. Sometimes (mostly when there are large number of users using the site) the code doesn't work. </p>
  
  <pre><code>    [WebMethod()]
      public static string GetStatus(string URL)
      {
          bool completed = false;
          HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(URL);
  
          using (HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
          {
              try
              {
                  if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
                  {
                      completed = true;
                  }
              }
              catch (Exception)
              {
                  //Just don't do anything. Retry after few seconds
              }
          }
  
          return completed.ToString();
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I look at the Windows Event logs there are several errors:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Unable to read data from the transport connection. An existing connection was forcibly closed
  
  The Operation has timed out
  
  The remote host closed the connection. The error code is 0x800703E3
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I restart the IIS, things work fine until the next time this happens. </p>