I/O exception (org.apache.http.NoHttpResponseException) caught when processing request: The target server failed to respond

I was continuously getting this error when trying to try out this code.

May 6, 2013 5:53:51 PM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector execute

INFO: I/O exception (org.apache.http.NoHttpResponseException) caught when processing request: The target server failed to respond

May 6, 2013 5:53:51 PM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector execute

INFO: Retrying request

May 6, 2013 5:54:53 PM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector execute

INFO: I/O exception (org.apache.http.NoHttpResponseException) caught when processing request: The target server failed to respond

May 6, 2013 5:54:53 PM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector execute

INFO: Retrying request

May 6, 2013 5:55:54 PM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector execute

INFO: I/O exception (org.apache.http.NoHttpResponseException) caught when processing request: The target server failed to respond

May 6, 2013 5:55:54 PM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector execute

INFO: Retrying request

Exception in thread "main" org.apache.http.NoHttpResponseException: The target server failed to respond

at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultResponseParser.parseHead(DefaultResponseParser.java:101)

at org.apache.http.impl.io.AbstractMessageParser.parse(AbstractMessageParser.java:252)

at org.apache.http.impl.AbstractHttpClientConnection.receiveResponseHeader(AbstractHttpClientConnection.java:281)

at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultClientConnection.receiveResponseHeader(DefaultClientConnection.java:227)

at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractClientConnAdapter.receiveResponseHeader(AbstractClientConnAdapter.java:229)

at org.apache.http.protocol.HttpRequestExecutor.doReceiveResponse(HttpRequestExecutor.java:298)

at org.apache.http.protocol.HttpRequestExecutor.execute(HttpRequestExecutor.java:125)

at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.execute(DefaultRequestDirector.java:447)

at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:641)

at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:576)

at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:554)

at QuickStart.main(QuickStart.java:107)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)

at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:115)

Finally after wasting about 5-6 hours of my time, :( found that this was due to an old HTTPClient jar. I had earlier used the version 4.0 org.apache.httpcomponents.httpclient. 

When upgraded this to 4.1, the issue got fixed. (source from a mail archive)