How to check if a computer is responding from C#

Question

What is the easiest way to check if a computer is alive and responding (say in ping/NetBios)? I'd like a deterministic method that I can time-limit.

One solution is simple access the share (File.GetDirectories(@"\compname")) in a separate thread, and kill the thread if it takes too long.

Answer 1

Easy! Use System.Net.NetworkInformation namespace's ping facility!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.networkinformation.ping.aspx