RSS timeout error when running website

[Bob Ross]

I am playing about with RSS feeds and having trouble. I have added a simple XMLDataSource and DataList adn set up the relevent settings for it to consume an RSS feed. This works fine if I open the site in the local file system but if open it as an IIS site then the site times out with this error -

A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond

What setting am I missing in IIS or in the webconfig maybe that would stop it from connecting when opened as an IIS site?

Thanks for your help.

[Plater]

So the difference is between if the RSS file is hosted locally or retreived through IIS?

[Bob Ross]

No sorry (I knew I hadn't explained that well enough).
The difference is how I run the website. When I open it in Visual Studio I can either open it as a website in the IIS or open it as a website in the local file system (which actually runs through an ASP.Net development server thing) .

I am using any old RSS feed from the net just for testing.

Does that make any more sense?

I just can't work out why IIS virtual directories can't connect to any RSS feed URL I supply. They just time out always. Where as the same site run through a .NET dev server thing in VS can connect fine.

[Plater]

Hmm as wierd as this may sound, does IIS have permisions to go through the firewall? It probably runs under different user credentials then the little webserver they give you for testing?

[Bob Ross]

I have no way of knowing if it can get through the firewall thats half the problem.
I think for the minute I'll have to chalk this one down to an infrastructure problem.

Thanks very much for your help.

[Plater]

Are you able to detect if anything is returned from the RSS feed at all?
(Maybe by packet watching with ethereal or something?)

[Bob Ross]

I just tried using Ethereal (now called Wireshark I believe) but couldn't really work it out.
Could it be that I need to direct it through our Proxy server?

[Plater]

Hmm, yeah I guess if you have a proxy server you might have to direct it through that.
I've never really dealt with proxy servers myself, I find them to be far too much overhead.

[Bob Ross]

I wish I didn't have to deal with proxies. Sadly that is not my choice.

This is so infuriating.

I now have it working through a webRequest object that has a webProxy class assigned (with out proxy address hard coded into it)

BUT...

This works in the page load event but if I try to run the same code in a PageMethod then it times out!!!

Ahhhhh!!!

Any ideas why being in a pageMethod may make a difference to its connectability?

BTW thanks for all the help Plater.