I have a network with many PCs I will call "servers" (they are plain PCs (powerfull, 4-8 cpus, etc)). Some are win7 and others XP. Aleatorily some of them "disapear" or worst, just become "off" the newtork for a while. This becomes a huge problem, as they have tons of scaned image files, running automatic processes on them. On these "off" states, or the automatic process fails (long "offs"), or worst,in short "offs" they continues skipping some images. My objective is to determine at the end what´s the cause of failure (network with cat-6, 3-com profesional switches, etc,). In meanwhile, my idea would be a kind of ping on these servers. That´s a good ideia? If yes, what´s the best way to not have false pings or reduce them? And, if anyone went thru this kind of problem, let me know, ok? Thanks Jose