PowerShell 2.0: One Cmdlet at a Time #6 Test-Connection

Continuing the series looking at new cmdlets available in PowerShell 2.0. This time we look at the Test-Connection cmdlet.

What can I do with it?

Send a ping to one or more computers

Examples:

Send a ping to Server01

Test-Connection -ComputerName Server01

If the result of a ping to Server01 is successful then copy a text file to a file share on that server

If (Test-Connection -computername Server01 -quiet)
{Copy-Item C:\Document.txt "\\Server01\Fileshare"}

How could I have done this in PowerShell 1.0?

You could have used Get-WMIObject with the Win32_PingStatus class.

Get-WmiObject Win32_PingStatus -filter "Address='Server01'"

Funnily enough Test-Connection and Get-WMIObject -class Win32_PingStatus look pretty similar when you pipe them through to Get-Member

You could also have used the .NET System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping class

$ping = New-Object System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping
$ping.send('Server01')

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