[erlang-questions] Checking the Connection

[Kithsiri]

Hi all,
      I'm try to find whether the connection to a remote node is present 
or not. For that I used
node.ping("remote",2000). I used a timeout period because i want fast 
reply from remote node. It give reply soon when connection is present, 
but it is not give reply within timeout period if the connection failed.
Can someone please give me a way to check the connection state within a 
limited period of time.

Thank You,
      Kithsiri.