Question

How to post the following HTTP requests in C#

POST http://10.0.0.1/st_poe.cgi

Accept: image/jpeg, application/x-ms-application, image/gif, application/xaml+xml, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, */*
Referer: http://10.0.0.1/RST_st_poe.htm
Accept-Language: en-US
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0)
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Host: 10.0.0.1
Content-Length: 21
Connection: Keep-Alive
Pragma: no-cache
Authorization: Basic YWStaW47c3Jsa3NobQ==

ConMethod=++Connect++

I’m trying to do it with the following code. It is not working.

            string user = Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(username + ":" + password));

            byte[] bytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("ConMethod=++Connect++");

            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://10.0.0.1/st_poe.cgi");

            request.Method = "POST";
            request.Headers.Add("Accept: image/jpeg, application/x-ms-application, image/gif, application/xaml+xml, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, */*");
            request.Referer = "http://10.0.0.1/RST_st_poe.htm";
            request.Headers.Add("Accept-Language: en-US");
            request.UserAgent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0)";
            request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
            request.Headers.Add("Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate");
            request.ContentLength = bytes.Length;
            request.Headers.Add("Host: 10.0.0.1");
            request.Headers.Add("Connection: Keep-Alive");
            request.Headers.Add("Pragma: no-cache");
            request.Headers.Add("Authorization: Basic "+user);


            Stream reqStream = request.GetRequestStream();

            reqStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);

            reqStream.Close();

Can anyone point out where I’m messing up. I’m using HttpWebRequest for the first time.

Answer 1

You should perform the actual request with

var response = request.GetResponse();

Alternatively, you can use the simpler System.Net.WebClient class:

var client = new WebClient();
client.Headers["..."] = ...;
// Use one of the DownloadXXX/UploadXXX methods.
var responseBody = client.UploadData("Url", dataToUpload);