W5100 Ethernet Shield problem - solution ?

SurferTim (or anyone else),

Is it possible to check if the Arduino Shield is hung by making an explicit call ? I cannot use a delay in my code, so I am thinking of a Timer that wakes up every 10 minutes. But what function should the Timer check to see if the the Shield has not hung ? I am using the WebClient Repeating code and the Arduino (shield) hangs.

thx,

Netnut