How can I programmatically test an HTTP connection?

Question

Using Java, how can I test that a URL is contactable, and returns a valid response?

http://stackoverflow.com/about

Answer 1

System.out.println(new InetSocketAddress("http://stackoverflow.com/about", 80).isUnresolved());

delivers false if page is reachable, which is a precondition.

In order to cover initial question completely, you need to implement a http get or post.