AlertPing lets you send pings to a set number of servers or websites, and so know and see on-screen the actual status (connected or not).
You can let the program work under a timer, for example: send a ping to a server every five minutes. You can also configure it to send the corresponding alert via a LAN, run a program or send you an email if a determined server has crashed or is on-line.
Additionally, you can also configure a sound notification or show a message on-screen via a pop-up. AlertPing resides in the system tray, and indicates the problems it finds by changing the colour of its icon.