This function can be found on Microsoft.com somewhere. I remember once finding some nslookup function where the author wrote the output of nslookup to a file on the hard drive, parsed it then forgot to delete it. I used that script and after a few years, I found that directory full of thousands of text files. Anyway, using StdOut.ReadAll would have been much more efficient. Here's a snippet I've used over and over:
Function PingHost(strComputer)
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objExec = objShell.Exec("ping -n 2 -w 1000 " & strComputer)
strPingResults = LCase(objExec.StdOut.ReadAll)
If InStr(strPingResults, "reply from") Then
PingHost = True
Else
PingHost = False
End If
Set objExec = Nothing
Set objShell = Nothing
End Function
For the record, a better way to find out if a machine is pingable is by using WMI and the machine's fully qualified domain name (if you use the netbios name, there is a delay if the host doesn't exist..but DNS reports back immediately)
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\.\root\cimv2")
strComputer = "myServer.myDomain.net"
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_PingStatus Where Address = '" & strComputer & "'")
For Each objItem in colItems
If objItem.StatusCode = 0 Then 'The Computer is Pingable
msgbox "Woot"
End if
Next
Set objWMIService = Nothing