Best way to check if FTP is online/offline

Hi, what is the best way to determine if a ftp server is online or offline in vb
i have tried many different ways of pinging the ftp server, for example:

Code:

---

        Dim objPing As New Ping()

        Try
            Dim objReply As PingReply = objPing.Send("ftp://servername.com/", 1000)

            If objReply.Status = IPStatus.Success Then
                Label1.Text = String.Format("<b>Success</b> - IP Address:{0} Time:{1}ms", objReply.Address, objReply.RoundtripTime)
            Else
                Label1.Text = objReply.Status.ToString()
            End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            Label1.Text = ex.Message
        End Try

---

But whatever i try i get this error: "An exception occurred during a Ping request."

There is no point in doing a ping before Trying the FTP request.