Why bother Google when your program can timeout while connecting to the real destination? This has also the advantage that the protocol used for testing is the same as later on for communication - which can be a good idea in the presence of firewalls.
More specific advice might be possible if you tell us more about the protocol/application.

A Super Search for connection timeout delivers some more suggestions.

Update: To check for presence of a server that is not confused if someone is ringing off without saying a word... 

sub check_port {
  my $host           = shift; # hostname or hostname:port
  my $timeoutseconds = shift || 1;
  my $proto          = "tcp";

  my $handle = IO::Socket::INET->new('PeerAddr'=>$host,'Timeout'=>$tim
+eoutseconds, 'Proto'=>$proto);

  if (defined $handle && $handle) {
    $handle->close();
    return 1; # port in use
  }

  return 0; # not reachable or timeout
}

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In reply to Re: Efficiently check internet connection? by Perlbotics
in thread Efficiently check internet connection? by Cody Pendant

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