A fix to a probably a bug? "Linux Lite cannot check for Updates"

[Roy]

So recently I've noticed 'lite-updates' won't run and shout at me that there's no internet connection even though there actually is.
After digging in the internet I was led into that post from Nov' 17 where Jerry uploaded a script for updates-gui
I've noticed the script contains a connection check:

Code:

# Check Internet access
if eval "curl -sk google.com" >> /dev/null 2>&1; then :; else # Prompt ERROR internet connection check failed and exit
  yad --center --borders=15 --info --width="320" --height="120" --window-icon="$_ICON" --button=gtk-ok:1 --title="$_APPNAME" \
         --text="\n<b>Your computer is not connected to the Internet.</b> \n \nLinux Lite cannot check for Updates.\nPlease check your internet connection and try again.\n" --text-align center 2>/dev/null
  rm_temp_files; exit 0
fi

So I tried running the check myself. I did:

Code:

curl -sk google.com

Only to found out that 'curl' has been removed from my system and the output of the command didn't evaluated to TRUE 

In my case the fix was just reinstall it:

Code:

sudo apt-get install curl

This is the second time this is happened to me, sometimes 'curl' get removed when upgrading or installing software that don't need curl as a dependency and overrides it with different version of curl (libcurl3 something?)

I don't know if its a bug but maybe there's a better way to check for internet connection than 'curl'?