Why do I get an Unable to connect to the remote server exception from a web app and not console app?

Question

I have a asmx web service running on a test server that has anonymous access enabled.

When I add the web reference to a console application and call a simple Hello World method like so:

PivotService.PivotService p = new PivotService.PivotService();
String s = p.SayHello();

When I do exactly the same thing in the page load of a web application I get a System.Net.WebException: {"Unable to connect to the remote server"}.

The inner exception is {"No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:8888"}, errorCode 10061.

Why would this work from a console app and not a web app?

Answer 1

It could be due to differences in the proxy settings between applications. Check out the MSDN documentation around the Default Proxy element in config file.

Answer 2

I too was in a similar situation while using HttpClient class from System.Net.Http namespace. I was trying to make a network call which goes through the company proxy server.

While this HttpClient call was able to successfully resolve the IP of the dns when called from a console app in visual studio the dns resolution failed when the call was made from a Web API. And it turned out that I had to have this entry in the web.config of the web api app.

<system.net>
    <defaultProxy />
</system.net>

Credit to Mark 909's answer for pointing me in right direction. Please see Default Proxy for additional information.

c#httpclientwebapi