Thread: problem with previously working internet code

This code previously worked on a ... 'project' of mine. Now though it fails to send request and returns error 997 (IO_PENDING).

Code:

// ........ Kuwait.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//
#include <windows.h>
#include <wininet.h>
#include <stdio.h>
BYTE pBuffer[1048576];
int main(int argc, char* argv[]){
    DWORD BytesRead = 0;
    printf("Opening internet...");
 HINTERNET hInternet = InternetOpen(L"FreeSpeech" , INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_DIRECT , NULL , NULL , INTERNET_FLAG_ASYNC);
    if(hInternet != NULL){
        printf("done.\nOpening connection...");
        } else {
        printf("FAILED.\n");
        return 0;
        }
    HINTERNET hConnect = InternetConnect(hInternet , L"134.225.36.80" , INTERNET_DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT , L"anonymous" , NULL , INTERNET_SERVICE_HTTP , 0 , NULL);
    // http://www.unitednetworks.com.kw
    if(hConnect != NULL){
        printf("done.\nOpening request...");
        } else {
        printf("FAILED.\n");
        return 0;
        }
    HINTERNET hRequest = HttpOpenRequest(hConnect , NULL , L"134.225.36.80/integers/?num=10&min=1&max=6&col=1&base=10&format=plain&rnd=new" , NULL , NULL , NULL , INTERNET_FLAG_RELOAD , NULL);
    if(hRequest != NULL){
        printf("done.\n");
        } else {
        printf("FAILED.\n");
        return 0;
        }
start:
    BOOL bSend = HttpSendRequest(hRequest , NULL , -1L , NULL , 0);
    if(bSend){
        printf("Request Sent.\n");
        } else {
        printf("Failed to send request.\n");
        printf("Errorcode = %d\n" , GetLastError());
  Sleep(1000);
        goto start; //return 0;
        }
    BOOL bRead;
    while(BytesRead == 0){
        bRead = InternetReadFile(hRequest , pBuffer , 1048576 , &BytesRead);
        Sleep(0);
        }
    printf("%d bytes read.\n" , BytesRead);
    BOOL bClose = InternetCloseHandle(hRequest);
    
    FILE* pFile = fopen("test.txt" , "w+b");
    fwrite((VOID*)pBuffer , 1048576, 1 , pFile);
    fclose(pFile);
    
    return 0;
    }