In the spirit of TMTOWTDI, you might want to check out Net::Ping::External on CPAN. I've looked at it, but haven't tried it yet (as a replacement to `/usr/sbin/ping` approach) so YMMV. It attempts to provide a standard interface to each platform's ping command.

-drat

"That is the best engineering, not which makes the most splendid, or even the most perfect, work, but that which makes a work that answers the purpose well, at the least cost"
--Ashbel Welch, President ASCE 1882