Non-blocking Internet connection

OK. I would try this : Your Industruino being blocked will trigger a watchdog like Adafruit Sleepydog. When your Industruino startups, just add 1 to a retry count you will save in EEPROM right after that, then attempt your Ethernet.begin. If this one fails, the watchdog will restart your Industruino again, and your retry count in EEPROM will be 2. I would try 3 consecutive attemps, then retry only every hour. If connect goes through, just reset your retry count. This way, your process will restart once in a while until your distant site gets available again. Hope this helps, Didier, DG2R

Hi Didier, this is not my case, so it does not help. There IS and Ethernet module and also an Internet connection which STOPS working at some point (for whatever reason). My question is whether there is something I can do in the code to prevent Industruino from waiting indefinitely at Ethernet.begin(mac, ip);

Hi Peter, At this point, I would use a watchdog, count the times the Industruino freezes in a row, save this in EEPROM, and when I reach a limit like 3 retries, stop retrying for, say, 10 minutes, and try again another 3-tries cycle, until it works. Not very satisfactory, but works. Didier, DG2R