I'm using the following to check for an unsuccessful ping, but if the line is open and bottlenecked enough to return a hundred percent loss, then the ping will return a false identity. Any suggestions? ping -c 4 -R mail.aculink.net > search-opening-data 2>&1; MOKAY=`egrep -ie packets search-opening-data | gawk -F " " '{print $7}'`; if [ "${MOKAY}" = "100%" ] Ignore the omittance of the remaining "if" statement. Note: When you reply to this message, please include the mailing list/newsgroup address in Cc: and my email address in To:. ********************************************************************* Signed, SoloCDM - : send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org