try
{
    beginAt(atUrl);
}
catch (RuntimeException re)
{
    // If we get here, it's possible that we are running on java 1.5 +
    // and the server is websphere. in this combination (and only this
    // one AFAIK) the HttpUnit client receives a null from
    // HttpUrlConnection.getErrorStream() which, according to the JDK javadoc
    // is supposed to indicate that there is no error. It certainly means
    // nothing can be read from it!
    // Unfortunately, when HttpUnit then follows the getInputStream() call
    // tree it ends up with an IOException it didn't expect.
    // To add insult to injury, this IOException is not set as the cause
    // of the RuntimeException jwebunit wraps it in so we just make some small
    // efforts to ensure the basis of the
    // exception is the 503 we were hoping for.
    log.warn("Can't assert 503 response, using crude websphere workaround");
    assertTrue(re.getMessage().contains("IOException"));
    assertTrue(re.getMessage().contains("503"));

    return;
}
WebResponse webResponse = getDialog().getResponse();
assertEquals("expected service unavailable response for url: '" + atUrl + "'",
    503, webResponse.getResponseCode());
assertEquals("should be no content for this url: '" + atUrl + "'", 0,
    webResponse.getText().length());