Operation Timeout Error: HttpWebRequest and HttpWebResponse objects

I took over the build of an application.  Part of the code base needs to ensure that it has an internet connection out to a few url's.  the person before me is using HTTPWebRequest and HTTPWebResponse objects and I'm not certain but I don't think his code ever worked.  He has it in a try/catch block and he is doing a bunch of other stuff that is very similar if it DOESN'T have a connection that unless he specifically looked in his log file I don't think he would have realized it.  also, it doesn't show up in the event viewer (again, because in a try/catch block)

Anyway, I've confirmed via pasting the URL into IE that both the URL's are up and can be connected to.  

So why do I keep "Operation Timed Out" errors?  Is there a better way to do this?

I've attached the function below.

public static void SaveWebToCache(string url, int durationSeconds, bool cacheStale)
    {
        // If we are using an overriding proxy send the request to that instead of
        // sending it to the direct source

        // If we are offline do not process this request
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineCount"]);
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineErrorMax"]);
        if (Convert.ToInt32(HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineCount"]) >= Convert.ToInt32(HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineErrorMax"]))
        {
            if (Convert.ToDateTime(HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineDate"]) > DateTime.Now)
            {
                HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineCount"] = 0;    // Attempt to connect again
                return;
            }
        }


        string proxyUrl = url;
        if (WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Proxy2URL"].ToString() != "")
        {
            proxyUrl = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Proxy2URL"].ToString();
            proxyUrl += PROXY_ASPX;
            proxyUrl += "?url=" + Uri.EscapeDataString(url);
            proxyUrl += "&dur=" + durationSeconds.ToString();
        }

        // Query the web page. If the page is offline then return what is a
        bool success = false;
        Stream streamHttp = null;
        try
        {
            HttpWebRequest webReq = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(proxyUrl);
            webReq.Timeout = Convert.ToInt32(System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["TimeOut"]);
            HttpWebResponse webResp = (HttpWebResponse)webReq.GetResponse();
            streamHttp = webResp.GetResponseStream();
            success = true;
        }
        catch (Exception exError)
        {
            success = false;
            cimLog.WriteLog(exError, cimLog.LogType.Warning);
            ProcessOffline();
        }

        // If we fail and we are using the Proxy, try again with the actual URL
        if (!success)
        {
            if (WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Proxy2URL"].ToString() != "")
            {
                try
                {
                    HttpWebRequest webReq = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
                    webReq.Timeout = Convert.ToInt32(System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["TimeOut"]);
                    HttpWebResponse webResp = (HttpWebResponse)webReq.GetResponse();
                    streamHttp = webResp.GetResponseStream();
                    success = true;
                }
                catch (Exception exError)
                {
                    success = false;
                    cimLog.WriteLog(exError, cimLog.LogType.Warning);
                    ProcessOffline();
                }
            }
        }

        // Do not write anything if we failed the request. We may want to use old data
        // Watch for io errors. The file may be locked
        if (success)
        {
            HttpContext.Current.Application["OfflineCount"] = 0;    // Clear any flags when we were off line 
            String filePath = "";

            /* Begin XML validation */
            // Copy streamHttp to a memory stream to allow seeking when using in XMLTextReader
            streamHttp = copyToMemoryStream(streamHttp);
            if (!xmlIsValid(url, streamHttp, durationSeconds))
            {
                schemReader.Close();
                // Write to log when data is invalid
                cimLog.WriteLog("\tFeed provider for feed: " + url + " returned invalid data.");
                // Break out of function to ensure proxy does not cacher bad data
                return;
            }
            schemReader.Close();
            // Reset position of streamHttp;
            streamHttp.Position = 0;
            try
            {
                filePath = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CachePath"].ToString() + cimHTTP.ConvertUrlToFileName(url);
                FileStream streamCache = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
                BinaryWriter binCache = new BinaryWriter(streamCache);
                int b;
                while ((b = streamHttp.ReadByte()) != -1)
                {
                    binCache.Write(Convert.ToByte(b));
                }
                binCache.Close();
                streamHttp.Close();
            }
            catch (IOException ioError)
            {
                cimLog.WriteLog("Could not write to " + filePath + ". " + ioError.Message, cimLog.LogType.Warning);
            }
            catch (Exception exError)
            {
                cimLog.WriteLog(exError.Message);
            }
        }

    }

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