How to make client socket wait for server socket

boolean scanning=true;
while(scanning) {
    try {
        socketChannel.open(hostname, port);
        scanning=false;
    } catch(ConnectionException e) {
        System.out.println("Connect failed, waiting and trying again");
        try {
            Thread.sleep(2000);//2 seconds
        } catch(InterruptedException ie){
            ie.printStackTrace();
        }
    } 
}

This is the code for sonics comment

I Will give this kind of handler for your client, I am using it in my little game.

It will also give up after few times.

private static int MAX_CONNECTION = 10;
private int reconnections = 0;

public void connect() {

            try {
                    this.socket = new Socket();
                    InetSocketAddress sa = new InetSocketAddress(this.server, this.port);
                    this.socket.connect(sa,500);
                    this.connected = true;

                    this.in = new InputStreamReader(this.socket.getInputStream());
                    this.out = new OutputStreamWriter(this.socket.getOutputStream());
            } catch (ConnectException e) {
                    System.out.println("Error while connecting. " + e.getMessage());
                    this.tryToReconnect();
            } catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
                    System.out.println("Connection: " + e.getMessage() + ".");
                    this.tryToReconnect();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
            }

    }
private void tryToReconnect() {
            this.disconnect();

            System.out.println("I will try to reconnect in 10 seconds... (" + this.reconnections + "/10)");
            try {
                    Thread.sleep(10000); //milliseconds
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            }

            if (this.reconnections < MAX_RECONNECTIONS) {
                    this.reconnections++;
                    this.connect();

            } else {
                    System.out.println("Reconnection failed, exeeded max reconnection tries. Shutting down.");
                    this.disconnect();
                    System.exit(0);
                    return;
            }

    }

Here is the explanation of the code:

private static final int MAX_CONNECTION = 10;
private int reconnections = 0;

First I declare two vars, one is fixed and cannot be changed at runtime, it's the maximum number of attempt I want the client to do before shutting down. The second is the current reconnection attempt.

public method connect() is used to connect the socket. I will skip to the exception handling:

} catch (ConnectException e) {
    System.out.println("Error while connecting. " + e.getMessage());
    this.tryToReconnect();
} catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
    System.out.println("Connection: " + e.getMessage() + ".");
    this.tryToReconnect();
}

When a connection exception is thrown the catcher call the reconnection method.

The reconnection method wait 10 second between each attempt and is called each time by connect() if this fail.

If the connection is established connect() will not call tryToReconnect() again. If is impossible to connect within 100 seconds 10 attempts one every 10 second, the program exit.