I need to check if a webservice is running. I do not know anything about it, other than the URL. Can I - at runtime - take the URL, get one of the methods (doesn't matter which one), call it, and then receive either an answer or an error? All I need to know is, that there is "someone" out there, not whether I get a correct response or whatever.

The URL and thus the webserice I need to check will be different each time, so there can be no service references in the project.