How to get 200 status code in PS after checking a

Question

I'm trying to get a 200 status code for a URL but I keep getting 0 instead. The url works, but the problem is it's a redirected URL. Even if I try the final URL after it redirects it still shows me a 0 status code.

How can I get the correct status code for a website that's down or up regardless of whether it's been redirected or not?

This is what I have now which works fine for regular URL's like http://google.com but not for redirected URL's. Unfortunately the urls I'm working with are private but it's in the format of http://example.com which winds up at https://example.com/index?redirectUrl=

If I run the PS script below with: .\CheckUrl.ps1 https://example.com/index?redirectUrl=

...it still fails to return a code of 200. The page comes up fine, whether I use the 1st url or the final redirected url but status code returns 0 which means it says the site is down and that's not true.

$url = $args[0]
function Get-WebStatus($url) {
    try {
        [Net.HttpWebRequest] $req = [Net.WebRequest]::Create($url)
        $req.Method = "HEAD"
        [Net.HttpWebResponse] $res = $req.GetResponse()
        if ($res.StatusCode -eq "200") {
            Write-Host "`nThe site $url is UP (Return code: $($res.StatusCode) - $([int] $res.StatusCode))`n"
        } else {
            Write-Host "`nThe site $url is DOWN (Return code: $($res.StatusCode) - $([int] $res.StatusCode))`n"
        }
    } catch {
        Write-Host "`nThe site $url is DOWN (Return code: $($res.StatusCode) - $([int] $res.StatusCode))`n" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
    }
}
Get-WebStatus $url

Answer 1

Too long for a comment. Important: $res = $req.GetResponse() does not set any value into the $res variable in the catch case (the $res variable keeps unchanged).

#url1 = $args[0]
function Get-WebStatus($url) {
    try {
        $req = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($url)
        $req.Method    = "HEAD"
        $req.Timeout   = 30000
        $req.KeepAlive = $false
        $res = $req.GetResponse()
        if ($res.StatusCode.value__ -eq 200) {
            Write-Host ("`nThe site $url is UP (Return code: " + 
                "$($res.StatusCode) - " + 
                "$($res.StatusCode.value__))`n") -ForegroundColor Cyan
        } else {
            Write-Host ("`nThe site $url is DOWN (Return code: " +
                "$($res.StatusCode) - " + 
                "$($res.StatusCode.value__))`n") -ForegroundColor Yellow
        }
    } catch {
        $res = $null  ### or ### [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::new()
        Write-Host ("`nThe site $url is DOWN " + 
            "($($error[0].Exception.InnerException.Message))`n") -Foreground Red
    }
    $res    ### return a value
}
#Get-WebStatus $url1

Output examples:

Get-WebStatus 'https://google.com/index?redirectUrl='
Get-WebStatus 'https://google.com/'
Get-WebStatus 'https://example.com/index?redirectUrl='

The site https://google.com/index?redirectUrl= is DOWN (The remote server
 returned an error: (404) Not Found.)

The site https://google.com/ is UP (Return code: OK - 200)

The site https://example.com/index?redirectUrl= is DOWN (The operation has
 timed out)