Strange status 403 after opening URLConnection

Question

I wonder why does this sample code:

public class Test {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        testLink("http://google.com");
        testLink("http://stackoverflow.com");
        testLink("http://docs.oracle.com");
    }

    private static void testLink(String urlStr) throws IOException
    {
        URL url = new URL(urlStr);

        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
        conn.connect();
        System.out.println(conn.getResponseCode());
        conn.disconnect();
    }
}

Usually prints:

200
403
200

and not:

200
200
200

Maybe the `User-Agent` the connection uses is not allowed by SO. — , Feb 21 '16 at 08:41
Perhaps this helps: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4633048/httpurlconnection-reading-response-content-on-403-error — Jose Luis, Feb 21 '16 at 08:57

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 21 '16 at 08:55

0

According to Wikipedia, a 403 response generally indicates one of two conditions:

Authentication was provided, but the authenticated user is not permitted to perform the requested operation.

The operation is forbidden to all users. For example, requests for a directory listing return code 403 when directory listing has been disabled.

So most probably connecting to SO via that User-Agent is forbidden.

edited Feb 21 '16 at 08:55

answered Feb 21 '16 at 08:44

Abhay Shukla

349
1
12

1

Apparently SO is not happy to get requests w/o user agent. Putting one makes it happy. – Lachezar Balev Feb 21 '16 at 08:58

Strange status 403 after opening URLConnection

1 Answers1