Best practice way to detect internet connectivity under Python 2.6/Windows

[Tim Golden]

On 08/03/2010 02:41, python at bdurham.com wrote:
> Is the best pratice way to detect internet connectivity under
> Windows (using Python 2.6) simply to attempt to access a known
> internet website using urllib or urlib2 wrapped in a try/except
> construct?

Well, in theory you could use the Internet API:

   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383996%28VS.85%29.aspx

which is exposed via the win32inet module:

   http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32inet.html

but I'd just do a socket connection to port 80 (or some known port
on some known server)  with a reasonable timeout.

TJG