There is a module that may give you a little help on the ping command. Instead of doing a system call you could use NET::Ping. Here is an example: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Net::Ping;

my $host = "XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX";
my $p = Net::Ping->new();
print "$host is alive.\n" if $p->ping($host);
$p->close();

[download]
This module allows you to specify timeout values and also change the type (TCP,UDP, or ICMP) of echo requests that you send. (Up to 6 different protocols) Ex. you cannot ICMP www.micro$oft.com but you can establish a tcp request to the echo port and determine if the server is there. TCP seems to be a little better suited than ICMP but causes more overhead and traffic.

This module also allows you to do a service check (still not fool proof why HTTP or another service is not responding - that would require coding per service level). It has some return value checking to give you some reason why the response was negative.

I would use this first before trying to harvest an HTTP error on a remote server which may never reveal itself for various reasons.

Good Luck

In reply to Re: website availability ping by diakonos
in thread website availability ping by Lhamo Latso

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