static int getURLReturnCode(String url) {
  if (!url.contains("//")) url = "http://" + url;
    
  HttpURLConnection conn = null;
  InputStream in = null;
  try {
    conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(url).openConnection();
    conn.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
    conn.setRequestProperty("X-No-Cookies", "1");
    in = conn.getInputStream();
    return conn.getResponseCode();
  } catch (IOException e) {
    silentException(e);
    return -1;
  } finally {
    closeURLConnection(conn, in);
  }
}

Began life as a copy of #1002941