GNU wget for MPE/iX might work, if used with the right command
line options. I seem to recall that it times out after a while
if the target server does not respond, and it has some option
to limit the number of retries to one. Not sure what it offers
for checking success or failure. Maybe $? in the Shell or CJCW.

Maybe something similar to the following would work...

:purge ./index.html
:xeq /usr/local/bin/wget "--retries=1 http://my3000/index.html"
:if not finfo("./index.html", "exists")
:  tellop *** Can you please have a look at our web server?
:endif

Lars (haven't tried it, just a wild guess here)