How to ping a server/website with windows python?

Question

Like the title says, Im trying to ping a website (Like google.com) with python in windows. All I want the program to do is return True if the ping was received, or False if it wasn't. What is the absolutely most simple way to do this?

Solution

The simplest way is to use os.system. In Windows:

import os
def ping(address):
    return not os.system('ping %s -n 1' % (address,))

Windows' ping returns 0 on success and 1 on failure, so we need to not the result.

If you want to suppress ping's output, simply add > NUL to the command.