Using System.Net.WebRequest Class without FQDN

PowerShell Help
1

So, I’m running into a strange issue I hope someone can shed some light on. I’m using the following to build my HTTPS request to a web server:

$req = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create("https://" + $script:Server + $uri)
$req.Method = $method
$req.ContentType = "application/json"
$req.Accept = "application/json"
$req.Headers.Item("accept-language") = "en"
$req.Headers.Item("accept-encoding") = "gzip, deflate"
        if ($body) {
            if ($method -eq "PUT") {
                #Handle eTags from connection manager
                $req.Headers.Item("If-match") = $body.etag
                }
            #Create a new stream writer to write the json to the request stream.
		    $js = $body | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 99 -Compress
		    if ($body.GetType().ToString() -eq "System.Object[]") {
			    $js = "[" + $js + "]"
			    }
		    "Request Body: " + $js | Write-Debug 
		    $stream = New-Object IO.StreamWriter $req.GetRequestStream()
		    $stream.AutoFlush = $True
		    $stream.WriteLine($js)
		    $stream.Close()
        }
try { 
            $script:lastWebResponse = $req.GetResponse()
}
 } catch [Net.WebException] { #some code to return error}

If I pass $script:Server = “Hostname”, the request is never sent and simply times out. If I use either the FQDN (e.g. “hostname.domain.com”) or IP Address, the connection is made successfully. Is there a problem with System.Net.WebRequest where it will only accept an FQDN or IP Address, and not the hostname? The system where I’m executing this script from is a member of the same Active Directory domain, and nslookup of “hostname” resolves to the same IP Address or FQDN I could substitute with. But I’d like my script to accept a hostname, and not require an FQDN or IP Address of the target server.

Oh, and I’m using PowerShell 3 on Windows Server 2008 R2.

2

It needs to be able to resolve the name via DNS - it can’t do a NetBIOS broadcast or anything. I’d need to do a network trace and see what was happening, but I’m guessing the web request stack isn’t able to resolve just a hostname.

(sorry for the delay - going through old unanswered posts today)

3

Try to add netBIOS (short name) into “hosts” file and test it. If it works then it’s problem in DNS resolution.