Some external servers (Google is a good example) require that you pass them an identifier (typically, a GUID) as "authentication" that you are authorized to get the data. With no valid authentication, you get nothing (or an error).
Others look at the browsers "HTTP_USER_AGENT" string and decide what to send back based on what browser the user has. If you don't give them a User Agent that they recognize, they give you back nothing (or an error).
Others (ASP and JSP based servers are good examples) are expecting a Cookie that identifies the particular user (e.g, sessionid in the case of ASP). If you don't give them a valid cookie, they give you back nothing (or an error).
So...
I don't know that we can help you without knowing more about the server from which you are trying to get the info.
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