hi all i have a question with win form and timer..

The situation: i have a winform c# application (developped with visual
studio 2005) which has to check the status of an internet connection on
regular intervals. If the connection is avaible the application has to
connect to a database to downloading some data.

my problem: i use a timer of the class system.windows.forms.timer and i
check the connection every tickevent : this operation is managed by the
same thread of the user interface? so this can slow the responsivness
of the application?

an other solution i have thinked : every tick event i start a
backgroundworker which check the connection and if it is possible makes
some operation with database. Is this a dummy idea?

Do you have some suggetion to solve my problem in the best way?

Sorry for  possible mistakes...i am italian