title: Connecting to a Multicast Server in Python
body: <p>This is my code for connecting to a multicast server, is this the best way of handling the exception. What I would like to do is to retry to connect if an exception occurs</p>
  
  <pre><code>def initialiseMulticastTrackerComms():
    try:
      sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM) 
      sock.setsockopt(socket.IPPROTO_IP, socket.IP_MULTICAST_TTL, 32)
      sock.bind((ANY, MCAST_PORT))
      host = socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())
      sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_IP, socket.IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP,socket.inet_aton(MCAST_GRP) + socket.inet_aton(host))
      sock.setblocking(False)
    except socket.error, (value,message): 
      print "Could not open socket: " + message
      sys.exit(1)
    else:
      print 'Connected to multicast server'
      return sock
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Could someone offer any advice on how to do this</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance</p>