How I can test URL connectivity

[Chilkosae Cozea]

Hi,

What is the best approach to verify connectivity to any HTTP URL in java?

Is there any lightweight call that could be made to verify that the server is working?

Thanks

[Joe Ess]

Opening a socket is the lightest thing I can think of.
If you want to make sure that you are connecting to an HTTP server, you'll either have to use a socket and manage the protocol yourself or read the result from an HttpUrlConnection.

[him jain]

you can write a servlet to respond to your http request.
You need to run your client on one side, and servlet on the other end to respond.
(if you want to go for http instead of socket)

[Rob Spoor]

Chilkosae Cozea wants to test if any random server is listening for HTTP request. Why would you then want to set up a server container yourself?