To ping another computer you can use easily WMI like this :
GeSHi (vb):
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject(_
"winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colPings = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * From Win32_PingStatus where Address = '192.168.1.1'")
For Each objStatus in colPings
If IsNull(objStatus.StatusCode) _
or objStatus.StatusCode<>0 Then
WScript.Echo "Computer did not respond."
Else
Wscript.Echo "Computer responded."
End If
Next
Created by GeSHI 1.0.7.20