title: Check if FTP is online/offline
body: <p>What is the best way to determine if a ftp server is online or offline in Visual Basic?
  I have tried many different ways of pinging the ftp server, but whatever I try, I get this error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>An exception occurred during a Ping request.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is this easily fixable?  Or is there a better method than what I'm using?</p>