I am trying to construct a batch file that lets someone remotley execute either a command prompt or task manager. I have that part done but what I want to do is to be able to ask the person running the script if they need to resolve a hostname to ip if they do then they enter the computer hostname. From here I would like to have something like a "ping <hostname> >ping.txt" and then have the batch file parse the file looking for either the word Reply (as in Reply from x.x.x.x) or Request (as in Request timed out) and based on that it stores the IP address (if valid) into a variable that I can call at a later time. I know that I am going to have to use the FIND command but I have no idea how to use it correctly. Thanks in advance.