Index: src/test/java/org/geoserver/wms/kvp/GetMapKvpRequestReaderTest.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/java/org/geoserver/wms/kvp/GetMapKvpRequestReaderTest.java	(revision 12446)
+++ src/test/java/org/geoserver/wms/kvp/GetMapKvpRequestReaderTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@
     }
     
     public void testRemoteWFS() throws Exception {
-        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable())
+        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable(LOGGER))
             return;
         
         HashMap raw = new HashMap();
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@
     }
     
     public void testRemoteWFSNoStyle() throws Exception {
-        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable())
+        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable(LOGGER))
             return;
         
         HashMap raw = new HashMap();
@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@
     }
     
     public void testRemoteWFSInvalidURL() throws Exception {
-        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable())
+        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable(LOGGER))
             return;
         
         HashMap raw = new HashMap();
Index: src/test/java/org/geoserver/wms/RemoteOWSTestSupport.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/java/org/geoserver/wms/RemoteOWSTestSupport.java	(revision 12446)
+++ src/test/java/org/geoserver/wms/RemoteOWSTestSupport.java	(working copy)
@@ -5,8 +5,10 @@
 package org.geoserver.wms;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLConnection;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
@@ -20,20 +22,26 @@
 import org.geotools.feature.FeatureCollection;
 import org.opengis.filter.FilterFactory;
 
+
 /** 
  * Utility class used to check wheter REMOTE_OWS_XXX related tests can be run against Sigma
  * or not.
  * @author Andrea Aime - TOPP
+ * @author Ben Caradoc-Davies, CSIRO Exploration and Mining
  */
 public class RemoteOWSTestSupport {
-    static final Logger LOGGER = org.geotools.util.logging.Logging.getLogger("org.geoserver.test"); 
-    
+
     // support for remote OWS layers
     public static final String TOPP_STATES = "topp:states";
+    
     public static final String WFS_SERVER_URL = "http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/wfs?";
+    
+    // URL for RemoteOWS specified in remoteOws.sld
+    public static final String REMOTE_OWS_USER_STYLE_URL = "http://sigma.openplans.org:8080/geoserver/wfs?";
+    
     static Boolean remoteStatesAvailable;
-    
-    public static boolean isRemoteStatesAvailable() {
+        
+    public static boolean isRemoteStatesAvailable(Logger logger) {
         if(remoteStatesAvailable == null) {
             // let's check if the remote WFS tests are runnable
             try {
@@ -53,16 +61,56 @@
                 dq.setFilter(ff.greater(ff.property("PERSONS"), ff.literal(20000000)));
                 FeatureCollection fc = fs.getFeatures(dq);
                 if(fc.size() != 1) {
-                    LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "Remote database status invalid, there should be one and only one " +
+                    logger.log(Level.WARNING, "Remote database status invalid, there should be one and only one " +
                             "feature with more than 20M persons in topp:states");
                     remoteStatesAvailable = Boolean.FALSE;
                 }
             } catch(IOException e) {
-                LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "Skipping remote OWS test, either demo  " +
+                logger.log(Level.WARNING, "Skipping remote OWS test, either demo  " +
                         "is down or the topp:states layer is not there", e);
                 remoteStatesAvailable = Boolean.FALSE;
             }
         } 
         return remoteStatesAvailable.booleanValue();
-   }
+    }
+    
+    /**
+     * Test whether the RemoteOWS URL specified in remoteOws.sld is responsive.
+     * 
+     * @param logger the logger to which status will be reported
+     * @return true if the service appears to be available
+     */
+    public static boolean isRemoteOwsUserStyleAvailable(Logger logger) {
+        InputStream input = null;
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(REMOTE_OWS_USER_STYLE_URL + "service=WFS&request=GetCapabilities");
+            URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();
+            // service must connect within five seconds
+            connection.setConnectTimeout(5000);
+            // service must respond to read within five seconds
+            connection.setReadTimeout(5000);
+            input = connection.getInputStream();
+            if (input.read() < 0) {
+                // end of the stream
+                throw new IOException("Unexpected end of input stream");
+            } else {
+                // successfully read a byte
+                logger.info("RemoteOWS user style appears to be available");
+                return true;
+            }
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            // this includes SocketTimeoutException
+            logger.log(Level.WARNING, "RemoteOWS user style not available", e);
+            return false;
+        } finally  {
+            if (input != null) {
+                try {
+                    input.close();
+                } catch (IOException e) {
+                    // ignore, we tried
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    
 }
Index: src/test/java/org/vfny/geoserver/wms/responses/map/kml/KMLTest.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/java/org/vfny/geoserver/wms/responses/map/kml/KMLTest.java	(revision 12446)
+++ src/test/java/org/vfny/geoserver/wms/responses/map/kml/KMLTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
     }
     
     public void testVectorWithRemoteLayer() throws Exception {
-        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable())
+        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable(LOGGER))
             return;
         
         Document doc = getAsDOM(
Index: src/test/java/org/vfny/geoserver/wms/responses/map/png/GetMapTest.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/java/org/vfny/geoserver/wms/responses/map/png/GetMapTest.java	(revision 12446)
+++ src/test/java/org/vfny/geoserver/wms/responses/map/png/GetMapTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 package org.vfny.geoserver.wms.responses.map.png;
 
 import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.net.URL;
 
 import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
@@ -118,7 +121,7 @@
     }
     
     public void testRemoteOWSGet() throws Exception {
-        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable())
+        if(!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable(LOGGER))
             return;
         
         ServletResponse response = getAsServletResponse(
@@ -135,8 +138,10 @@
     }
     
     public void testRemoteOWSUserStyleGet() throws Exception {
-        if (!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable())
+        if (!RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteStatesAvailable(LOGGER)
+                || !RemoteOWSTestSupport.isRemoteOwsUserStyleAvailable(LOGGER)) {
             return;
+        }
 
         URL url = GetMapTest.class.getResource("remoteOws.sld");
 
@@ -148,5 +153,5 @@
 
         assertEquals("image/png", response.getContentType());
     }
-
+    
 }