How to: Determine if a Remote Computer is Available in Visual Basic

  • Article

You can use the My.Computer.Network.Ping Method to determine whether a remote computer or host is available. The server can be specified by URL, computer name, or IP address. Do not include http:// when specifying a URL.

The Ping method is not a fail-safe method for determining the availability of a remote computer: the ping port on the target machine may be turned off, or the ping request may be blocked by a firewall or router.

Note

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To ping a server

  • Determine whether the Ping method returns True. This example reports whether or not the server can be pinged, by determining whether the Ping method returned True. Replace 198.01.01.01 with the IP address, URL, or computer name of the server to ping

    If My.Computer.Network.Ping("198.01.01.01") Then
  MsgBox("Server pinged successfully.")
Else
  MsgBox("Ping request timed out.")
End If

To ping a server and specify a time-out

  • Determine whether the Ping method returns True, specifying the time-out interval in milliseconds. If no time-out is specified, 500 is used as the default. This example reports whether or not the server can be pinged, by determining whether the Ping method returned True, and it specifies a time-out interval of 1000 milliseconds. Replace www.cohowinery.com with the IP address, URL, or computer name of the server to ping.

    If My.Computer.Network.Ping("www.cohowinery.com", 1000) Then
  MsgBox("Server pinged successfully.")
Else
  MsgBox("Ping request timed out.")
End If

See Also

Tasks

How to: Check Connection Status in Visual Basic

Reference

My.Computer.Network Object

My.Computer.Network Object Members

My.Computer.Network.Ping Method