How to change the timeout on a .NET WebClient object

For anyone who needs a WebClient with a timeout that works for async/task methods, the suggested solutions won't work. Here's what does work:

public class WebClientWithTimeout : WebClient
{
    //10 secs default
    public int Timeout { get; set; } = 10000;

    //for sync requests
    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
    {
        var w = base.GetWebRequest(uri);
        w.Timeout = Timeout; //10 seconds timeout
        return w;
    }

    //the above will not work for async requests :(
    //let's create a workaround by hiding the method
    //and creating our own version of DownloadStringTaskAsync
    public new async Task<string> DownloadStringTaskAsync(Uri address)
    {
        var t = base.DownloadStringTaskAsync(address);
        if(await Task.WhenAny(t, Task.Delay(Timeout)) != t) //time out!
        {
            CancelAsync();
        }
        return await t;
    }
}

I blogged about the full workaround here

Usage:

using (var client = new TimeoutWebClient(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)))
{
    return await client.DownloadStringTaskAsync(url).ConfigureAwait(false);
}

Class:

using System;
using System.Net;

namespace Utilities
{
    public class TimeoutWebClient : WebClient
    {
        public TimeSpan Timeout { get; set; }

        public TimeoutWebClient(TimeSpan timeout)
        {
            Timeout = timeout;
        }

        protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
        {
            var request = base.GetWebRequest(uri);
            if (request == null)
            {
                return null;
            }

            var timeoutInMilliseconds = (int) Timeout.TotalMilliseconds;

            request.Timeout = timeoutInMilliseconds;
            if (request is HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest)
            {
                httpWebRequest.ReadWriteTimeout = timeoutInMilliseconds;
            }

            return request;
        }
    }
}

But I recommend a more modern solution:

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public static async Task<string> ReadGetRequestDataAsync(Uri uri, TimeSpan? timeout = null, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
{
    using var source = CancellationTokenSource.CreateLinkedTokenSource(cancellationToken);
    if (timeout != null)
    {
        source.CancelAfter(timeout.Value);
    }

    using var client = new HttpClient();
    using var response = await client.GetAsync(uri, source.Token).ConfigureAwait(false);

    return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
}

It will throw an OperationCanceledException after a timeout.

I had to fight with this issue yesterday and I've also ended up to write my custom extension class.

As you can see by looking at the code below and comparing it with the accepted answer, I tried to tweak the suggestion a little bit more in order to have a more versatile class: this way you can set a precise timeout either upon instancing the object or right before using a method that uses the internal WebRequest handler.

using System;
using System.Net;

namespace Ryadel.Components.Web
{
    /// <summary>
    /// An extension of the standard System.Net.WebClient
    /// featuring a customizable constructor and [Timeout] property.
    /// </summary>
    public class RyadelWebClient : WebClient
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Default constructor (30000 ms timeout)
        /// NOTE: timeout can be changed later on using the [Timeout] property.
        /// </summary>
        public RyadelWebClient() : this(30000) { }

        /// <summary>
        /// Constructor with customizable timeout
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="timeout">
        /// Web request timeout (in milliseconds)
        /// </param>
        public RyadelWebClient(int timeout)
        {
            Timeout = timeout;
        }

        #region Methods
        protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
        {
            WebRequest w = base.GetWebRequest(uri);
            w.Timeout = Timeout;
            ((HttpWebRequest)w).ReadWriteTimeout = Timeout;
            return w;
        }
        #endregion

        /// <summary>
        /// Web request timeout (in milliseconds)
        /// </summary>
        public int Timeout { get; set; }
    }
}

While I was there, I also took the chance to lower the default Timeout value to 30 seconds, as 100 seemed way too much for me.

In case you need additional info regarding this class or how to use it, check out this post I wrote on my blog.

According to kisp solution this is my edited version working async:

Class WebConnection.cs

internal class WebConnection : WebClient
{
    internal int Timeout { get; set; }

    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri Address)
    {
        WebRequest WebReq = base.GetWebRequest(Address);
        WebReq.Timeout = Timeout * 1000 // Seconds
        return WebReq;
    }
}

The async Task

private async Task GetDataAsyncWithTimeout()
{
    await Task.Run(() =>
    {
        using (WebConnection webClient = new WebConnection())
        {
            webClient.Timeout = 5; // Five seconds (the multiplication is in the override)
            webClient.DownloadData("https://www.yourwebsite.com");
        }
    });
} // await GetDataAsyncWithTimeout()

Else, if you don't want to use async:

private void GetDataSyncWithTimeout()
{
    using (WebConnection webClient = new WebConnection())
    {
        webClient.Timeout = 5; // Five seconds (the multiplication is in the override)
        webClient.DownloadData("https://www.yourwebsite.com");
    }
} // GetDataSyncWithTimeout()

In some cases it is necessary to add user agent to headers:

WebClient myWebClient = new WebClient();
myWebClient.DownloadFile(myStringWebResource, fileName);
myWebClient.Headers["User-Agent"] = "Mozilla/4.0 (Compatible; Windows NT 5.1; MSIE 6.0) (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)";

This was the solution to my case.

Credit:

http://genjurosdojo.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-remote-server-returned-error-504.html