ESP32 - How to disable watchdog timer for HTTP server?

This has proven to be a very reliable way for me to connect to WIFI. Hope it helps you.

void connectToWiFi()
{
  int TryCount = 0;
  while ( WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED )
  {
    TryCount++;
    WiFi.disconnect();
    WiFi.begin( SSID, PASSWORD );
    vTaskDelay( 4000 );
    if ( TryCount == 10 )
    {
      ESP.restart();
    }
  }
  WiFi.onEvent( WiFiEvent );
}

Edit to add:

if ( (wifiClient.connected()) && (WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECTED) )
    {

The best way to check for a valid WiFi connection.