want api to simulate windows ping.exe

I'm looking for an API which i can use to simulate the windows program Ping.exe. I've checked out the winsock ocx but i'd like to ping different OS's from a win2000 server. I'm creating app that will send SMS to people when a server goes down and i don't want to use the shell function to call ping.exe it is stuffing around with the app's that has the focus.

Please help

Const SOCKET_ERROR = 0
Private Type WSAdata
wVersion As Integer
wHighVersion As Integer
szDescription(0 To 255) As Byte
szSystemStatus(0 To 128) As Byte
iMaxSockets As Integer
iMaxUdpDg As Integer
lpVendorInfo As Long
End Type
Private Type Hostent
h_name As Long
h_aliases As Long
h_addrtype As Integer
h_length As Integer
h_addr_list As Long
End Type
Private Type IP_OPTION_INFORMATION
TTL As Byte
Tos As Byte
Flags As Byte
OptionsSize As Long
OptionsData As String * 128
End Type
Private Type IP_ECHO_REPLY
Address(0 To 3) As Byte
Status As Long
RoundTripTime As Long
DataSize As Integer
Reserved As Integer
data As Long
Options As IP_OPTION_INFORMATION
End Type
Private Declare Function GetHostByName _ Lib "wsock32.dll" Alias "gethostbyname" (ByVal HostName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function WSAStartup Lib "wsock32.dll" _(ByVal wVersionRequired&, lpWSAdata As WSAdata) As Long
Private Declare Function WSACleanup Lib "wsock32.dll" _ () As Long
Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" _ Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (hpvDest As Any, hpvSource As Any, ByVal cbCopy As Long)
Private Declare Function IcmpCreateFile Lib "icmp.dll" () _ As Long
Private Declare Function IcmpCloseHandle Lib "icmp.dll" _ (ByVal HANDLE As Long) As Boolean
Private Declare Function IcmpSendEcho Lib "ICMP" _ (ByVal IcmpHandle As Long, ByVal DestAddress As Long, _ ByVal RequestData As String, ByVal RequestSize As Integer, RequestOptns As IP_OPTION_INFORMATION, _ ReplyBuffer As IP_ECHO_REPLY, ByVal ReplySize As _ Long, ByVal TimeOut As Long) As Boolean
Private Sub Form_Load()
Const HostName = "www.geocities.com"
Dim hFile As Long, lpWSAdata As WSAdata
Dim hHostent As Hostent, AddrList As Long
Dim Address As Long, rIP As String
Dim OptInfo As IP_OPTION_INFORMATION
Dim EchoReply As IP_ECHO_REPLY
Call WSAStartup(&H101, lpWSAdata)
If GetHostByName(HostName + String(64 - Len _ (HostName), 0)) <> SOCKET_ERROR Then
CopyMemory hHostent.h_name, ByVal _ GetHostByName(HostName + String(64 - Len(HostName), 0)), Len(hHostent)
CopyMemory AddrList, ByVal hHostent.h_addr_list, _ 4
CopyMemory Address, ByVal AddrList, 4
End If
hFile = IcmpCreateFile()
If hFile = 0 Then
MsgBox "Unable to Create File Handle"
Exit Sub
End If
OptInfo.TTL = 255
If IcmpSendEcho(hFile, Address, String(32, "A"), 32, _ OptInfo, EchoReply, Len(EchoReply) + 8, 2000) Then
rIP = CStr(EchoReply.Address(0)) + "." + CStr _ (EchoReply.Address(1)) + "." + CStr(EchoReply.Address _ (2)) + "." + CStr(EchoReply.Address(3))
Else
MsgBox "Timeout"
End If
If EchoReply.Status = 0 Then
MsgBox "Reply from " + HostName + " (" + rIP + ") _ recieved after " + Trim$(CStr _ (EchoReply.RoundTripTime)) + "ms"
Else
MsgBox "Failure ..."
End If
Call IcmpCloseHandle(hFile)
Call WSACleanup
End Sub