HttpWebRequest.GetResponse for "404 Not Found" and similar http status codesMOTOBIT.COM

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      Question: When I execute HttpWebRequest.GetResponse on URL with 404 status, GetResponse returns "The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found." exception instead of response, before I can retrieve the HttpStatusCode. Why is that? What can I do?
      You can really test this strange "feature" on next source code. HttpWebRequest works with "404 Not Found" web response in the same way as with real errors - Connection failure, Timeout, NameResolutionFailure and other real errors. Next GetResponse function really returns Nothing when URL returns 404, 500 or other status codes, not regular HttpWebResponse object. 'open an URL and return response Public Function GetResponse(ByRef URL As String) As HttpWebResponse 'Create a web request Dim m_Req As HttpWebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(URL) 'Get a web response Return m_Req.GetResponse() End Function       To really get a response, you have to use System.Net.WebException instead of HttpWebRequest.GetResponse when the "404" exception occurs: 'open an URL and return response Public Function GetResponse(ByRef URL As String) As HttpWebResponse 'Create a web request Dim m_Req As HttpWebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(URL) 'Get a web response Try Return m_Req.GetResponse() Catch ex As System.Net.WebException If ex.Status = WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError Then Return ex.Response End If End Try Return Nothing End Function

Copyright and use this code

<A
 Href="https://www.motobit.com/tips/detpg_net-getresponse-404/"
 Title="Really get a HttpWebResponse object from
	HttpWebRequest when http server answers
	with other status codes than
	200 OK."
>HttpWebRequest.GetResponse for "404 Not Found" and similar http status codes</A>

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