`ping xxx` will work in windows as well.
Try String#scan, String#split for scraping, as well as the rest of 
String's methods - they're very useful.
`ping www.google.com`.split("\r\n") will get you an array of the lines 
of output.

I can't really say more without knowing more about what you want to 
scrape out.

Ken

Jason Mayer wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I've been learning ruby for a little while, but I'm having trouble
> figuring out how to do this (and I must be using the wrong keywords in
> my google search).  I do tech support, and I'm looking to automate
> some basic troubleshooting over a web interface for my coworkers and
> new hires.
>
> What I'd like to do is script the windows ping command and scrape the
> results.  Anyone know where I can find good references on this?
>
> So I guess my question could be clarified as How do I script windows
> command line commands via ruby (I understand that in linux I could
> just use `ping xxx`)?
>
> The second question would be 'How do I scrape the output of a windows
> cmd.exe command and use it in the rest of my script?'
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
>