testing for Internet connection

[Richard Gaskin]

Mark Brownell wrote:
> 
> On Saturday, December 18, 2004, at 11:46 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
> 
>> There have been many posts here over the last couple years about 
>> various methods of having an app test to see if it has an Internet 
>> connection available, but for every suggestion I can find in the 
>> archives there's a subsequent post explaining why that method isn't 
>> optimal or in some cases even reliable.
>>
>> What is the recommended method of testing for an Internet connection? 
> 
> I have my recommendation to myself that I use for best practices for my 
> needs. I need my users to be able to get many files from my website so I 
> have my standalone app get a very small text file just to see if it's 
> working. If it tests out as returning it then the connection is active. 
> This is not best for when it might time out but the connection to my 
> other files would time out as well in that case.

Variants of that seem to be the most commonly-used method, but the 
counter-argument that's been raised here is that there's no way to 
differentiate between a transaction that fails because of the lack of a 
connection and one caused by an error from the server -- is there?

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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