My ignorance may show here and please correct me if
I'm wrong but, does the fact that a ping is successful
guarantee that a subsequent FTP will be successful?
Doesn't the ftp service on the system have to be
running to have the ftp open command succeed?
My assumption with ping has always been that it checks
to see if there is electrically active hardware but
doesn't guarantee that a user process can actually
connect to a remote machine.
Can anyone more knowledgeable weigh in.

P.S. EXCELLENT script Donna!
--- Donna Hofmeister <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> fwiw, there are/should be several 'nslookup's to
> pick from.  a listfile of [log in to unmask] revealed 3
> on my system.  if you have bind installed, you'll
> find one there as well.
> 
> you might want to take a look at this script.  we
> had a similar situation where we wanted to be sure
> what we were about to ftp to was actually alive. 
> the variabled 'answered_ping' needs to be checked
> after the script is run:
> 
> parm addr=?
> if "!addr" = "?" or dwns("!addr") = "help"
>   echo
>   echo ![basename(hpfile)] [node name|ip address]
>   echo                   req.
>   echo This script will ping the provided
> network-attached device
>   echo and return the CI boolean variable
> ANSWERED_PING.
>   echo
>   return
> endif
> setvar _pt_addr               "!addr"
> if not numeric(word(_pt_addr,"."))
>   mylookup !_pt_addr
>   if bound (ml_ip2)
>     setvar _pt_addr2          ml_ip2
>   else
>     setvar pt_err "ERROR: Couldn't convert !_pt_addr
> to an ip address"
>     echo !pt_err
>     escape 99
>   endif
> else
>   setvar _pt_addr2            _pt_addr
> endif
> file pingout=po!hppin,old;dev=disc
> if not finfo("*PINGOUT","EXISTS")
>   build po!hppin;rec=-1,,b,ascii
> endif
> continue
> larsping.net.sys "!_pt_addr2,3,64" > *pingout
> setvar answered_ping          true
> grep.hpbin.sys "' 0 % packet loss' PO!HPPIN" >$null
> if cjcw <> 0
>   setvar answered_ping        false
>   echo ********************
>   print *pingout;page=0
>   echo ********************
> endif
> deletevar _pt@
> reset pingout
> purge po!hppin
> 
> a couple of notes...  if you want 'mylookup', please
> let me know privately.  it's a wrapper for nslookup.
>  larsping (gee, where'd we get *that* name :-) is
> the special version of ping available on jazz that
> doesn't require any special capabilities to use.    
>   - d
> 
> ---- 
> Donna Hofmeister, HP-CSA Sr. System Programmer
> dgarverick -at- longs -dot- com
> 925-210-6631 Longs Drug Stores
> 
> >>>MY opinions, not Longs Drug Stores'<<<
> 
> 


John Bawden
Homestead3000 Consulting
[log in to unmask]

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