iOS NSURLRequests Status Code Always 200 - ios

Question

Our requirements include checking Internet access to a specific file on the web-server. This file is checked every n minutes. NSURLRequests never calls connection:didFailWithError whether or not there is an internet connection. And the HTTP status is always 200. Apple's reachibility only works for domains, not files- so it doesn't meet the requirements. How can I reliably discover if I can reach this file every n minutes? Why isn't the http status code really the http status code?
Other stackoverflow questions that would seem to answer this question do not work:
1. How could connectionDidFinishLoading: run if no file is found on server?
2. Testing use of NSURLConnection with HTTP response error statuses
I tried using another queue with a completion block, but that also didn't work.
-(void) updateConnectionStatus
{
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:(NSString*)[appValues getValueForSettingsKey:#"company.project.test.pingURL"]];
NSURLRequest *urlRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
//NSOperationQueue *queue = [[NSOperationQueue alloc] init];
//__block __typeof__(self) _self = self;
connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:urlRequest delegate:self];
/*
[NSURLConnection
sendAsynchronousRequest:urlRequest queue:queue
completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response,
NSData *data,
NSError *error) {
NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse*)response;
int code = [httpResponse statusCode]; // ALWAYS 200 no matter what
NSString *pingFile = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"%#",error); // NEVER has an error
//This doesn't even work because it remembers FOREVER the value once it gets it.
if ([#"Ping!" isEqualToString:pingFile])
{
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[_self companyConnection:YES];
});
} else {
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[_self companyConnection:NO];
});
}
}];
*/
}
-(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
{
NSLog(#"ERROR: %#", error); // Never get here
}
-(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response
{
NSHTTPURLResponse *aResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse*)response;
NSLog(#"received a response: %ld",(long)[aResponse statusCode] );
if ([response respondsToSelector:#selector(statusCode)])
{
int statusCode = [((NSHTTPURLResponse *)response) statusCode];
// statusCode is always 200
if (statusCode >= 400)
{
[companyConnection cancel]; // stop connecting; no more delegate messages
NSDictionary *errorInfo
= [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:
NSLocalizedString(#"Server returned status code %d",#""),
statusCode]
forKey:NSLocalizedDescriptionKey];
}
}
}
-(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data
{
NSLog(#"received data");
}
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection
{
NSLog(#"Finished");
}

Answer 1

Try with setting cachePolicy as NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringCacheData while constructing the NSURLRequest object

Answer 2

Thanks to Wain and Rob for putting me onto the right path. One way to keep the cache clear is adding this method to your NSURLConnectionDelegate:
- (NSCachedURLResponse *)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection willCacheResponse:(NSCachedURLResponse *)cachedResponse
{
return nil;
}