Migrating from Commons HttpClient to the HttpComponents Client

I would like to migrate the HttpClient (3.x) from Commons to the HttpComponents Client (4.x), but have difficulty managing the forwarding. The code works correctly in Commons HttpClient, but it breaks when porting HttpComponents to the client. Some of the links get unwanted redirects, but when I set "http.protocol.handle-redirects" to "false", a lot of links stop working at all.

Commons HttpClient 3.x:

private static HttpClient httpClient = null;
private static MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager connectionManager = null;
private static final long MAX_CONNECTION_IDLE_TIME = 60000; // milliseconds

static {
    //HttpURLConnection.setFollowRedirects(true);
    CookieManager manager = new CookieManager();
    manager.setCookiePolicy(CookiePolicy.ACCEPT_ALL);
    CookieHandler.setDefault(manager);

connectionManager = new MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager();
connectionManager.getParams().setDefaultMaxConnectionsPerHost(1000); // will need to set from properties file
connectionManager.getParams().setMaxTotalConnections(1000);
httpClient = new HttpClient(connectionManager);
}




/*
* Retrieve HTML
*/  
public String fetchURL(String url) throws IOException{

    if ( StringUtils.isEmpty(url) )
        return null;

    GetMethod getMethod = new GetMethod(url);
    HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient();
    //configureMethod(getMethod);
    //ObjectInputStream oin = null;
    InputStream in = null;
    int code = -1;
    String html = "";
    String lastModified = null;
    try {
      code = httpClient.executeMethod(getMethod);

      in = getMethod.getResponseBodyAsStream();
        //oin = new ObjectInputStream(in);
        //html = getMethod.getResponseBodyAsString();
        html = CharStreams.toString(new InputStreamReader(in));

    }


    catch (Exception except) {
    }
    finally {

      try {
        //oin.close();
        in.close();
      }
      catch (Exception except) {}

      getMethod.releaseConnection();
      connectionManager.closeIdleConnections(MAX_CONNECTION_IDLE_TIME);
    }

    if (code <= 400){
        return html.replaceAll("\\s+", " ");
    } else {
        throw new Exception("URL: " + url + " returned response code " + code);
    }

}

HttpComponents 4.x Client:

private static HttpClient httpClient = null;
private static HttpParams params = null;
//private static MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager connectionManager = null;
private static ThreadSafeClientConnManager connectionManager = null;
private static final int MAX_CONNECTION_IDLE_TIME = 60000; // milliseconds


static {
    //HttpURLConnection.setFollowRedirects(true);
    CookieManager manager = new CookieManager();
    manager.setCookiePolicy(CookiePolicy.ACCEPT_ALL);
    CookieHandler.setDefault(manager);


connectionManager = new ThreadSafeClientConnManager();
connectionManager.setDefaultMaxPerRoute(1000); // will need to set from properties file
connectionManager.setMaxTotal(1000);
httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient(connectionManager);



    // HTTP parameters stores header etc.
    params = new BasicHttpParams();
    params.setParameter("http.protocol.handle-redirects",false);

}




/*
* Retrieve HTML
*/  
public String fetchURL(String url) throws IOException{

    if ( StringUtils.isEmpty(url) )
        return null;

    InputStream in = null;
    //int code = -1;
    String html = "";

 // Prepare a request object
 HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);
httpget.setParams(params);

 // Execute the request
 HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpget);

 // The response status
 //System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
int code = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();

 // Get hold of the response entity
 HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

 // If the response does not enclose an entity, there is no need
 // to worry about connection release
 if (entity != null) {

        try {
            //code = httpClient.executeMethod(getMethod);

            //in = getMethod.getResponseBodyAsStream();
            in = entity.getContent();
            html = CharStreams.toString(new InputStreamReader(in));

        }


        catch (Exception except) {
            throw new Exception("URL: " + url + " returned response code " + code);
        }
        finally {

            try {
                //oin.close();
                in.close();
            }
            catch (Exception except) {}

            //getMethod.releaseConnection();
            connectionManager.closeIdleConnections(MAX_CONNECTION_IDLE_TIME, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
            connectionManager.closeExpiredConnections();
        }

    }

    if (code <= 400){
        return html;
    } else {
        throw new Exception("URL: " + url + " returned response code " + code);
    }


}

, HttpClient 4.x, , , , . http://www.walmart.com/ = > http://mobile.walmart.com/. HttpClient 3.x .

, HttpClient 3.x HttpClient 4.x ?