How to change the timeout on a .NET WebClient object

Question

You can extend the timeout: inherit the original WebClient class and override the webrequest getter to set your own timeout, like in the following example.

MyWebClient was a private class in my case:

private class MyWebClient : WebClient
{
    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
    {
        WebRequest w = base.GetWebRequest(uri);
        w.Timeout = 20 * 60 * 1000;
        return w;
    }
}

The first solution did not work for me but here is some code that did work for me.

    private class WebClient : System.Net.WebClient
    {
        public int Timeout { get; set; }

        protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
        {
            WebRequest lWebRequest = base.GetWebRequest(uri);
            lWebRequest.Timeout = Timeout;
            ((HttpWebRequest)lWebRequest).ReadWriteTimeout = Timeout;
            return lWebRequest;
        }
    }

    private string GetRequest(string aURL)
    {
        using (var lWebClient = new WebClient())
        {
            lWebClient.Timeout = 600 * 60 * 1000;
            return lWebClient.DownloadString(aURL);
        }
    }

You need to use HttpWebRequest rather than WebClient as you can't set the timeout on WebClient without extending it (even though it uses the HttpWebRequest). Using the HttpWebRequest instead will allow you to set the timeout.

Couldn't get the w.Timeout code to work when pulled out the network cable, it just wasn't timing out, moved to using HttpWebRequest and does the job now.

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(downloadUrl);
request.Timeout = 10000;
request.ReadWriteTimeout = 10000;
var wresp = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();

using (Stream file = File.OpenWrite(downloadFile))
{
    wresp.GetResponseStream().CopyTo(file);
}

For completeness, here's kisp's solution ported to VB (can't add code to a comment)

Namespace Utils

''' <summary>
''' Subclass of WebClient to provide access to the timeout property
''' </summary>
Public Class WebClient
    Inherits System.Net.WebClient

    Private _TimeoutMS As Integer = 0

    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()
    End Sub
    Public Sub New(ByVal TimeoutMS As Integer)
        MyBase.New()
        _TimeoutMS = TimeoutMS
    End Sub
    ''' <summary>
    ''' Set the web call timeout in Milliseconds
    ''' </summary>
    ''' <value></value>
    Public WriteOnly Property setTimeout() As Integer
        Set(ByVal value As Integer)
            _TimeoutMS = value
        End Set
    End Property


    Protected Overrides Function GetWebRequest(ByVal address As System.Uri) As System.Net.WebRequest
        Dim w As System.Net.WebRequest = MyBase.GetWebRequest(address)
        If _TimeoutMS <> 0 Then
            w.Timeout = _TimeoutMS
        End If
        Return w
    End Function

End Class

End Namespace

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