Setting timeout property for System.Net.WebClient Class

You can also use the System.Net.HttpWebRequest implementation of System.Net.WebRequest. It comes packaged with a timeout property - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.httpwebrequest.aspx.

It would be a simple call to the object:

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using System.Net;

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HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(new Uri("www.microsoft.com"));
webRequest.Timeout = 10000; // setting timeout value to 10 secs

HttpWebResponse webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse();

// you may now use a stream reader to read the response stream

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