Advice on aborting a network read with a long timeout

Hi all, I have a program which connects to an external instrument (via TCP/IP with the instrument control toolbox, in case it matters) to read some data. I know that this data will take a while to arrive so the timeout needs to be long. But I want the user to be able to cancel the operation via an Abort button in my GUI. I'm looking for some advice on how best to program this functionality.

As I see it, I have three options:

1. Repeated reads with short timeouts; in between each (failed) read a global abort flag is checked; timeout errors are caught and ignored. Conceptually speaking (I don't intend this code to run!):

for i=1:max_iterations
  if global_abort
     write_operation_cancel_command
  else
    try
      read_with_short_timeout
    catch timeout_error
    end
  end
  update waitbar
  drawnow
end

With the drawnow giving the GUI time to run the callback on the Abort button which sets the global_abort flag. This should work but it seems clumsy to me.

2. A read with a long timeout interrupted by a ctrl-c. Can you send a ctrl-c programatically? This supposes that I have a GUI with one window 'busy' in the read callback and a second with which the user can interact to send the operation_cancel_command and ctrl-c.

3. An asynchronous read with a long timeout interrupted by stopasync. Again, I'd need (somehow?!) to write a GUI with one window functioning (for the operation_cancel_command and the stopasync) and the other blocked (doing the readasync). This, I suspect, is the best option - but it's also the one about which I understand the least. Is it worth my while to look into this in detail?

Sorry for the length of this question, but I hope it's clear. Is there another, easier way that I haven't thought of? Any suggestions gratefully received! Thanks in advance.