title: How do I test connectivity to an unknown web service in C#?
body: <p>I'm busy writing a class that monitors the status of RAS connections.  I need to test to make sure that the connection is not only connected, but also that it can communicate with my web service.  Since this class will be used in many future projects, I'd like a way to test the connection to the webservice without knowing anything about it.</p>
  
  <p>I was thinking of passing the URL to the class so that it at least knows where to find it.  Pinging the server is not a sufficient test.  It is possible for the server to be available, but the service to be offline.</p>
  
  <p>How can I effectively test that I'm able to get a response from the web service?</p>