httpwebresponse = request.getresponse freezes

I tried using suggestions from other posts for this and still no resolution. When sending a POST request, at certain times it will just begin to freeze and stall. I set up my code as follows and now basically if I cannot figure out why it is freezing, then it needs to timeout, handle the exception and restart the function

Code:

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For i As Integer = 0 To searchItems.Count - 1
If uri.Scheme = uri.UriSchemeHttps Then
                        Dim request As HttpWebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(url)
                        request.Method = "POST"
                        request.ContentLength = data.Length
                        request.ContentType = "application/xml; charset=utf-8"
                        request.Timeout = 20000
                        Dim writer As New StreamWriter(request.GetRequestStream)

                        Dim postBytes As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data)
                        writer.Write(postBytes)
                        ***Using oResponse As HttpWebResponse = request.GetResponse()*** ' this is where it freezes
                            Dim reader As New StreamReader(oResponse.GetResponseStream())
                            responseData = reader.ReadToEnd()
                            reader.Dispose()
                            oResponse.Close()
                        End Using
                        request.Abort()

                        writer.Close()
                    End If

                End If
            Next

    Catch e As WebException
        If e.Status = WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError Then
        ....

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Does anyone know if this is a coding error or something else?
Is the problem from the destination server or is it an error from my end?