well.
I use
shell '%comspec% /c ping $ip -n 1 -w 20|find /c "(0% loss),'+'" > %temp%\invis.tmp'

in my inventory script. -w makes it not to wait for many seconds. 0% loss is string that is included in ping reply no matter what language is installed.
sadness is that it needs to be readen from file. and I don't know howto pipe the errorlevel with anything.

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