A universal server ping tool

ping_server.py

def ping_server(host):
    """
    Returns True if host (str) responds to a ping request.
    Remember that a host may not respond to a ping (ICMP) request even if the host name is valid.
    """

    # Ping command count option as function of OS
    param = "-n" if system().lower()=="windows" else "-c"
    # Building the command. Ex: "ping -c 1 google.com"
    command = ' '.join(["ping", param, '1', str(host)])
    need_sh = False if  system().lower()=="windows" else True

    # Pinging
    return call(command, shell=need_sh) == 0