code: protected static Properties loadConfig(URL url) {
      InputStream is = null;
      try {
        URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();
        if(connection instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
          HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection)connection;
          conn.setConnectTimeout(5000);
          conn.setReadTimeout(5000);        
        }
        is = connection.getInputStream();
        return loadConfig(url.toString(), is);     
      } catch (Exception ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Failed to load configuration from [" + url + "]", ex);
      }finally {
        if(is!=null) try { is.close(); } catch (Exception ex) { /* No Op */ }
      }
    }
docs: Loads properties from the passed URL
  @param url The url to load from
  @return the loaded properties