HttpURLConnection timeout settings

HttpURLConnection has a setConnectTimeout method.

Just set the timeout to 5000 milliseconds, and then catch java.net.SocketTimeoutException

Your code should look something like this:

try {
   HttpURLConnection.setFollowRedirects(false);
   HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(url).openConnection();
   con.setRequestMethod("HEAD");

   con.setConnectTimeout(5000); //set timeout to 5 seconds

   return (con.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK);
} catch (java.net.SocketTimeoutException e) {
   return false;
} catch (java.io.IOException e) {
   return false;
}

You can set timeout like this,

con.setConnectTimeout(connectTimeout);
con.setReadTimeout(socketTimeout);

If the HTTP Connection doesn't timeout, You can implement the timeout checker in the background thread itself (AsyncTask, Service, etc), the following class is an example for Customize AsyncTask which timeout after certain period

public abstract class AsyncTaskWithTimer<Params, Progress, Result> extends
    AsyncTask<Params, Progress, Result> {

private static final int HTTP_REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 30000;

@Override
protected Result doInBackground(Params... params) {
    createTimeoutListener();
    return doInBackgroundImpl(params);
}

private void createTimeoutListener() {
    Thread timeout = new Thread() {
        public void run() {
            Looper.prepare();

            final Handler handler = new Handler();
            handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {

                    if (AsyncTaskWithTimer.this != null
                            && AsyncTaskWithTimer.this.getStatus() != Status.FINISHED)
                        AsyncTaskWithTimer.this.cancel(true);
                    handler.removeCallbacks(this);
                    Looper.myLooper().quit();
                }
            }, HTTP_REQUEST_TIMEOUT);

            Looper.loop();
        }
    };
    timeout.start();
}

abstract protected Result doInBackgroundImpl(Params... params);
}

A Sample for this

public class AsyncTaskWithTimerSample extends AsyncTaskWithTimer<Void, Void, Void> {

    @Override
    protected void onCancelled(Void void) {
        Log.d(TAG, "Async Task onCancelled With Result");
        super.onCancelled(result);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onCancelled() {
        Log.d(TAG, "Async Task onCancelled");
        super.onCancelled();
    }

    @Override
    protected Void doInBackgroundImpl(Void... params) {
        // Do background work
        return null;
    };
 }