Well, actually the script I'm working on is a dns system. So naturally I'd use traceroute, but like in ping .... I find it easier for the command to just return 0 or 1(success or fail). Traceroute returns a LOT and I have no idea how to tell the script if the IP is alive or not using those results.
@gaal: Thanks for the link, I'll see if my supervisor will allow me to install it on our testserver, then I'll see if it'll work.