Thread Subject: urlread timeout

urlread has a serious problem, at least in R13, in that if
the url you're trying to read doesn't answer, urlread just
hangs without returning an error. In fact the only way to
regain control is to open the process manager and kill Matlab.

I tried Fu-Sung Wang's urlread2 which claims to fix this but
it generates the following error:

img = urlread2('http://192.168.0.107/image.jpg', [], [], 5);
??? Undefined variable 'com' or class
'com.mathworks.mlwidgets.html.HTMLPrefs.setProxySettings'.

Error in ==> C:\matlab\toolbox\matlab\iofun\urlread2.m
On line 41 ==>
com.mathworks.mlwidgets.html.HTMLPrefs.setProxySettings

I tried saying

com.mathworks.services.Prefs.setStringPref('HelpSelectedProducts','MATLAB');

and then restarting Matlab as suggested in another post, but
that had no effect.

The author isn't answering his email and I'm really stuck.
Does anyone have a way to read web pages without hanging if
the url is down? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.