Can't you just use Time::HiRes and calculate how long it takes for the ping() method call to take? I realize you'll get a bit more overhead in the calculation than if the module did it for you, but it won't really add up to that much, will it?

I guess hostname-to-IP lookup could be a problem so you might want to do that "by hand" before calling ping()?

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")