new

$p = Net::Ping->new([proto[, def_timeout[, bytes]]])

Creates a new ping object. All arguments are optional. Takes the following arguments:

proto

The protocol to use when doing a ping. Default is udp. The possible protocols are:

icmp

Sends an icmp echo message to the remote host. If the echoed message is received correctly back from the remote host, that host is considered reachable. Requires the program to be run as root or setuid to root.

tcp

Attempts to establish connection to remote host's echo port. If successful, remote host is considered reachable. No data is actually echoed. No special privileges are required, but overhead is higher than for the others.

udp

Sends a udp packet to remote host's echo port. If the echoed packet is received back from the remote host and contains the same data as was sent, the remote host is considered reachable. Requires no special privileges.

def_timeout

Default timeout in seconds to be used if timeout not passed to the ping method. Must be greater than zero; defaults to 5 seconds.

bytes

Number of bytes included in the ping packet sent to the remote host. Ignored if protocol is tcp. Default is 1 if protocol is udp, otherwise 0. These are also the minimum number of bytes; the maximum is 1024.