I think a more "proper" way is to just ask the OS to provide that info, android provides an intent exactly for this reason
<actionandroid:name="android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE"/>
I believe it is better to get the internet connectivity status (including type of connection etc) from the event since there are many reasons where an http request would fail (dns, port blocking, IDS block due to numerous connections etc).
I use BroadcastReceiver to register as receiver and monitor network connection (using this method you can know when the connection is down since it fires a broadcast event).
Example follows
1st we register our receiver and set the intent filter we want to use
Sub Activity_Create(FirstTime As Boolean)
Broadcast.Initialize("BroadcastReceiver")
Broadcast.addAction("android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE")
Broadcast.SetPriority(2147483647)
Broadcast.registerReceiver("")
Dim debugLbl As Label
Activity.Initialize("Main")
debugLbl.Initialize("")
Activity.AddView(debugLbl,0,0,100%x, 100%y)
End Sub
2nd we just listen for the event and do whatever we need there
Sub BroadcastReceiver_OnReceive (Action As String, i As Object)
Dim retIn As Intent
Dim tmpLbl As Label
retIn = i
tmpLbl = Activity.GetView(0)
tmpLbl.Text = retIn.ExtrasToString
Broadcast.AbortBroadcast
End Sub
I hope this helps