How to test an Internet connection with bash?

Question

How can an internet connection be tested without pinging some website? I mean, what if there is a connection but the site is down? Is there a check for a connection with the

Answer 1

Checking Google's index page is another way to do it:

#!/bin/bash

WGET="/usr/bin/wget"

$WGET -q --tries=20 --timeout=10 http://www.google.com -O /tmp/google.idx &> /dev/null
if [ ! -s /tmp/google.idx ]
then
    echo "Not Connected..!"
else
    echo "Connected..!"
fi