Variable not working in ping

[xuzo]

First I fetched the URL in question with Clipget, then I want to check if the URL is alive or dead:

$ftp_url = ClipGet()
;this will go to next table and start loop
MsgBox(0, "Data Check", " Title " & $score_title & " Composer " & $composer & " Opus " & $opus & " Instrument " & $instrument & " Date Created " & $date_created & " Style " & $music_style & " Source " & $source & " This is the FTP URL " & $ftp_url)
Send("{down}{down}{down}{SHIFTDOWN}{TAB 19}{SHIFTUP}")
;This is to to check if URl exists
Local $var = Ping($ftp_url, 250)
If $var Then; also possible: If @error = 0 Then ...
MsgBox(0, "Status", "Online, roundtrip was:" & $var)
Else
MsgBox(0, "Status", "An error occured with number: " & @error)
EndIf

But it seems I'm doing something wrong with this line:

Local $var = Ping($ftp_url, 250)

Thanks

[BrewManNH]

What's the URL you're pinging, and what are the results from the ping command?

[xuzo]

The URL is copied from the clipboard and then assigned to variable $ftp_url, so $ftp_url should be the URL in question

Error on pop up is:

An error occured with number:4

or

MsgBox(0, "Status", "An error occured with number: " & @error)

Edited August 6, 2012 by xuzo

[GEOSoft]

I suspect that your URL includes fttp:// and that won't work with a ping command. You can only ping the server which is the portion after the // so

Ping("http://www.someurl.com") is not valid whereas Ping("www.someurl.com") is.

[BrewManNH]

The URL is copied from the clipboard and then assigned to variable $ftp_url, so $ftp_url should be the URL in question

Error on pop up is:

An error occured with number:4

or

I'm well aware of where the URL is coming from, it's explained above, that wasn't my question. My question was, what is the URL that you're putting into the $ftp_url after getting it from the clipboard,"www.someurl.com" is a URL, is that what you're putting into the clipboard, or are you doing what GEOSoft asked above? If it's not a valid URL, then it's not going to work correctly, which is why I asked what $ftp_url contains when you try and ping it.

[xuzo]

Actually the reason why this didn't work was as geosoft said above, you can't ping an FTP.

So if it can't be pinged, how could I check to see if an FTP url is online or not?

Thanks

[BrewManNH]

Ping the server without using ftp:// in front of the URL.