Searching strategy in an infinte list

Question

I am listening to a 3rd party web-service, when the services starts it generates a stream of objects which I am receiving. I have to search for a specific object within given amount of time and do some processing if the object is found or throw an error in any of the below condition:

1. The web-service stops and I haven't found the object.
2. My timer expires.
3. Any other erroneous condition.

I am wondering about what could be the best way to search for the object assuming I am searching in an infinite list and the order of items in which they appear in the list cannot be predicted ?

Answer 1

If the order cannot be predicted, then there's no better way than simply testing each object as it is received.