Executing a bat file from php?

Is there a way to execute or do the same thing as what a bat file does? I would like to use ping in command but am not allowed to use it from where i am accessing the web site. So is there a way to exec cmd from where the server is if its on windows or from the client? Thanks for the help.

might not beable to. try exec("file.bat") but if that doesn't work php has some built in functions that check dns.

look into checkdnsrr() or gethostbyaddr() or gethostbyname(), gethostbynamel()

will those tell me the latency of the ips?

it will return true if valid and false if nothing or invalid.

so do you know how i can get the latency of an ip?

and say i want to execute the bat file witha variable? would it look like this? exec("file.bat",$variable);

why do you want the latency?

either it is there or not

I would like the latency so I can run my script from other places and find the latency of an ip without using command promt. On some computers i go to i cant use command promt.