Android: How to check if the server is available?

He probably needs Java code since he's working on Android. The Java equivalent -- which I believe works on Android -- should be:

InetAddress.getByName(host).isReachable(timeOut)

With a simple ping-like test, this worked for me :

static public boolean isURLReachable(Context context) {
    ConnectivityManager cm = (ConnectivityManager) context.getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
    NetworkInfo netInfo = cm.getActiveNetworkInfo();
    if (netInfo != null && netInfo.isConnected()) {
        try {
            URL url = new URL("http://192.168.1.13");   // Change to "http://google.com" for www  test.
            HttpURLConnection urlc = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
            urlc.setConnectTimeout(10 * 1000);          // 10 s.
            urlc.connect();
            if (urlc.getResponseCode() == 200) {        // 200 = "OK" code (http connection is fine).
                Log.wtf("Connection", "Success !");
                return true;
            } else {
                return false;
            }
        } catch (MalformedURLException e1) {
            return false;
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

Do not forget to run this function in a thread (not in the main thread).