diff --git a/common.sh b/common.sh
index b070738baa182d1967cbf647e843e64307904854..7794eb202502a30c91d78e0e184b6a801e132f67 100644
--- a/common.sh
+++ b/common.sh
@@ -36,3 +36,24 @@ function getProxyConf()
     puid=$(grep "^puid=" ${PROXYCONF} | cut -f2 -d=)
     ppasswd=$(grep "^ppasswd=" ${PROXYCONF} | cut -f2 -d=)
 }
+
+function tryWget(){
+    getProxyConf
+    if test -z "$phost"; then
+        PROXY=""
+    else
+        PROXY="http://${phost}:${pport}"
+    fi
+
+    if which wget &>/dev/null; then
+        WGETBIN="$(which wget)"
+    else
+        WGETBIN="${PREFIX}/bin/wget"
+    fi
+
+    http_proxy="${PROXY}" ${WGETBIN} --tries=${UPDATETRIES} \
+                                     --timeout=${UPDATETIMEOUT} \
+                                     --proxy-user="${puid}" \
+                                     --proxy-password="${ppasswd}" \
+                                     $* || return 1
+}