Hi David! :-)

 DD> export result=`ping -c 4 -q ispgate | grep avg | wc -l`
 DD> if [ $result != 1 ]
 DD>       ...
Equivalent (or maybe even better, -c 4 does not exit for me when no replies
come, it waits forever for 4 replies to emerge):

if ! ping -c 4 -w 4 ispgate &> /dev/null; then
  ...
fi

ping exits with 0 exit status when replies come in, or with 1 when no replies come.

Ciao
Pascal

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.1