For the lazy in you, allow me to introduce LWP::Simple:

use strict;
use LWP::Simple qw(getstore head is_success);

my @allowed = ('text/html', 'image/gif');

my $content = (head($url))[0];
die "Invalid content type! Please check URL.\n"
    unless grep($content =~ /\Q$_\E/, @allowed);

FETCH: for(1..5) {
    if(is_success getstore($url, $output)) {
        printf "$output %d bytes OK\n", -s $output;
        last FETCH;
    } else {
        sleep 5;
    }
} continue {
    die "Unable to fetch and store: $!\n$url => $output\n";
}
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Not bad, eh? Let it do the work for you. :)

Update: Fixed a small bug, thanks chipmunk!

Update: spaz, try this on for size (LWP::Simple perldoc, approx line 148):

use LWP::Simple qw($ua);
$ua->timeout(40); # set timeout, default 180
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