If you are having trouble reaching a host on the Internet, experiencing very slow loads of web pages, or getting DNS errors, there are three tools you can use to get more information. PING can tell you if another computer is alive. It is a network diagnostic tool that verifies connectivity to a particular system on the network.
PING sends one packet per second and prints one line of output for every response received.
When PING terminates, it displays a brief summary of round-trip times and packet loss statistics. Then, ping hosts and gateways further and further away. There are PING programs for all platforms. You can download one to use, or you can use a web interface to a PING client. It should still tell you if the machine in question is alive.