Client doesn't call web.api json service - c#

I have a strange problem where a program using a simple external call to an web.api.
The program is working on about 50% of the clients I've tried it on.
The program uses a WebClient to fetch the data.
On my local machine where the program works, I have analyzed the call to the json service via fiddler and everything works fine, a request is made and json is returned.
When checking fiddler on a client where the program doesn't work, there is not even a request being done according to fiddler.
This makes me believe that there might be some policy on these computer that does not allow external calls.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
/Peter

Related

Getting 403 when executing request from amazon server

Very same code works fine from other locations, but whenever is run from amazon server it gets 403.
We tried "everything":
checking with postman
copying cookies
copying / not copying the headers.
whatever we do we get 403 when code / request is run from amazon server. What is even more interesting: browsers work fine (you can get to the same link from any browser without any errors). So the conclusion is like "something blocks requests that are not sent with the browser and we can't impersonate aby browser".
thanks in advance!
PS as far what i know it's fine from some other hosting services, only Amazon seems to be blocked.
Requests are not passed from any app / any language, including Postman but they're fine when any browser is used. So it's like "something" detects the original source of request and if request comes from amz "it" blocks the request. Everything is fine when not used from amz servers)
You can send your request to https://requestbin.com/ to analyze better what is going out from the Program and then change the missing parameters.

Webservice taking long time to response

I have a client server application. My server is in PHP, Mysql and Apache and client is developed using C# windows Form. I have SOAP WSDL webservice for client server communication.
Recently I found a problem, when my client sends the request, response comes after very long time (like 3/4 mins to some hrs.), and sometimes I never gets response. I have checked all the timeout value in client (httpwebrequest timeout, readwritetimeout) as well as server(timeout, keepalivetimeout) side, the max value I have is 5mins (for httpwebrequest readwritetimeout). So can anybody tell what would be the problem? Why it is taking hours to get response or not geting any response?
In my experience, problems like these come with the web-service connection being blocked by a firewall, or a wonky proxy in the way. Check that this is not the issue.
You should first begin be locating the problem by narrowing down the options. Have you tried calling the web service on the server locally, see if you get the same problem - if you don't then it is with high likeliness certainly a connection problem.
To also rule out the client having problems, try using something like http://www.soapui.org/ instead to call your server web service.
Where are you calling the server from? Are you sure the device you call it from is not being IP-blocked, and are you sure your web service is able to access its database from where it is being run.
Does the MySQL user defined for your server API to use have access from the IP of the server. MySQL users are often blocked by IP as well.
If you're running it all locally, are you sure your IIS Express settings/virtual folders are not jumbled up and the URLs are resolving wrong. Try creating the virtual folder again to rule out this. Even when running locally, remember to check that the MySQL user has access from your local IP.
Here's a few things I usually check when I have issues like yours.

How to Debug a web service

We have a Win32 application that connects to a third party application to send some info to it. That application has a web service that we call its methods. One of its web methods is called GetDevices and when our application is calling it, it will fail to work and I have no idea what are the details of this failure. So we should write a small diagnosis application that can create some detailed log files to know what is going, send it to them to run it and then we may know what is going on with more detail. Now do you have any ideas what is a good way to write such a diagnosis application for this debugging purpose?
If this web service is using HTTP (either SOAP or REST) you can use Fiddler to snoop the HTTP traffic and see what's happening.
When web requests are made, the request (and response from the server) will show up in Fiddler, and you can use that to determine why it's not doing what you expect.

Application hanging in a web service

I have an application that users were complaining that it hangs when the user trys to perform a certain action. I found it that it is hanging in a web service call. The web service is running on a remote server. I can't figure out how to debug into the web service through VS when the code is on a remote server.
How do I find out in the web service where exactly the code is hanging?
If you don't have access to the source of the web service then you're not going to be able to "debug" it. If you want to try to externally debug it then you can create a page that sends various inputs to it (some that should work, some that should error out, etc). You can then access this page in a browser that has developer tools (I would recommend Firefox w/ Firebug or Google Chrome) and then look at how long the calls are taking. Google Chrome will show you how long it took to send the request, how long it waited, how long it took to receive, etc. If it IS the actually web service and you don't have access to it then it would be odd that you were responsible for fixing this issue. I have a feeling though, if this is a robust web service, you're going to find that you're either having a networking issue or your sending it some invalid input or something along those lines.
If you do have access to the source code then simply run the web service locally and point your local version of the application at the local version of the web service. Any breakpoints you put in the web service will hang the application and you will be able to step through it just like you can non-web-service code.
In your own code, take a look at what is going on with the web service call. e.g Does it throw a fault? Timeout? Does it ever return a successful response? If not, are you sending valid data?
If the web service call is successful but just slow, consider how you might make your application appear to be more responsive. One possibility is to use Asynchronous Programming.

How to see SOAP data my client application sends?

I have a project where I have created web service proxy classes with wsdl.exe and then simply create an instance of that class (inherits System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol) and call the method that should send a SOAP message. I'm using Visual Studio 2008 if that matters. And I'm trying this in my development machine without access to actual web service that is located inside of customer's intranet. So, the sending will of course not succeed and I will not get any response back but all I would like to see is the exact content of SOAP messages this solution creates and tries to send. How do I see that?
Use fiddler.
Have a look at SOAPUI from eviware.com.
Its a free for personal use Java app. Among other things you can
set it up to run as a dummy test server. Just load up hte WSDL
and enter the dummy data.
In test server mode it will log your requests so you can see whats happening
inside the request message.
If you're Web service is accessed by clear text, non-SSL HTTP, you can just use a sniffer, like Wireshark, to see the data coming from and to your application. Wireshark can trace, filter and analyze wire data. I have used it do debug HTTP and other protocols many times, and it's a great tool to do this.
SOAP messages are simply XML data sent using the HTTP POST method. So you can for example install a local web server on your development machine, configure your web service to use some dummy URI on this server, and grab the network traffic with WireShark (AKA ethereal). The big advantage of this method is that it involves no coding.
Alternatively you can use an HTTP echo server that dumps its incoming traffic, like this one (found while googling "http echo server"):
You can intercept the call with tcpMon

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