Description:

fping is a ping(1) like program which uses the Internet Control
Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request to determine if a host is
up. fping is different from ping in that you can specify any number of
hosts on the command line, or specify a file containing the lists of
hosts to ping. Instead of trying one host until it timeouts or
replies, fping will send out a ping packet and move on to the next
host in a round-robin fashion. If a host replies, it is noted and
removed from the list of hosts to check. If a host does not respond
within a certain time limit and/or retry limit it will be considered
unreachable.

Unlike ping, fping is meant to be used in scripts and its output is
easy to parse.