VBScript Ping Function: Simple Network Testing Tool

Looking for a clean VBScript ping function for network testing? I needed a simple solution that worked without common drawbacks. This VBScript ping function meets specific requirements for efficient network connectivity testing.

Requirements for the VBScript Ping Function

When searching for the perfect ping function in VBScript, I had three main constraints:

• No use of GetObject method
• No command prompt windows appearing during execution
• No temporary files created during the process

The VBScript Ping Function Solution

After some research, I found this elegant VBScript ping function that perfectly meets all requirements:

Function ping(node)
    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    ping = Not CBool(WshShell.Run("ping -n 1 " & node, 0, True))
End Function

This function uses the WScript.Shell object to run a ping command with these key features:

• Uses the -n 1 parameter to send just one ping packet
• The second parameter (0) hides the command window
• The third parameter (True) makes the script wait for completion

Limitations of the VBScript Ping Function

While this VBScript ping function works well, it does have one limitation. I wanted to add a 1-second timeout, but implementing this with threading proved challenging.

Although the ping command itself offers a timeout parameter, when pinging an incorrect hostname, the function will still hang briefly before returning a result.

Using the VBScript Ping Function in Real Applications

This VBScript ping function is perfect for:

For more advanced network testing tools and techniques, you might want to explore resources like Microsoft’s PowerShell documentation or TechRepublic’s network testing guides.