Using something in a void context means you're throwing away any return value. This may or may not be a good idea. (Hint: it's almost *never* a good idea.)

In this particular example, since Net::Ping is available as part of the Core distribution, I'd suggest using that module instead of anything that involves shelling out to the OS.

From the man page:

This module contains methods to test the reachability of remote hosts on a network. A ping object is first created with optional parameters, a variable number of hosts may be pinged multiple times and then the connection is closed.