title: How does HttpWebRequest differ (functional) from pasteing a URL into an address bar?
body: <p>I'm narrowing in on an underlying problem related to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1101266/bittorrent-tracker-announce-problem">two</a> <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1105244/uri-encoding-strangeness">prior</a> questions.</p>
  
  <p>Basically, I've got a URL that when I fetch it manually (paste it into browser) works just fine, but when I run through some code (using the HttpWebRequest) has a different result.</p>
  
  <p>The URL (example):</p>
  
  <pre>
  http://208.106.250.207:8192/announce?info_hash=-%CA8%C1%C9rDb%ADL%ED%B4%2A%15i%80Z%B8%F%C&peer_id=01234567890123456789&port=6881&uploaded=0&downloaded=0&left=0&compact=0&no_peer_id=0&event=started
  </pre>
  
  <p>The code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>String uri = BuildURI(); //Returns the above URL
  HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(uri);
  req.Proxy = new WebProxy();
  WebResponse resp = req.GetResponse();
  Stream stream = resp.GetResponseStream();
  ... Parse the result (which is an error message from the server claiming the url is incorrect) ...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So, how can I GET from a server given a URL?  I'm obviously doing something wrong here, but can't tell what.</p>
  
  <p>Either a fix for my code, or an alternative approach that actually works would be fine.  I'm not wed at all to the HttpWebRequest method.</p>