pinging or else network devices from livecode

[Robert Brenstein]

A weekend challenge for those who are bored, but not only...

I wonder whether it is possible to have a livecode stack that scans 
all IP addresses within a specific subnet to check whether devices 
are there. I am currently using Remote Desktop to do those scans 
manually but this is becoming boring and I'd like to run them more 
regularly, that is to automate the process.

For each scan, I need to get the list of active IP adresses in a 
specific subnet and the corresponding MAC addresses and hostnames 
(hostnames is easy with the hostaddresstoname function in livecode). 
I gather I could try opening a socket to some specific port. However, 
this needs to work with Macs (OS9 and OSX), Windows, Linux, NAS, 
printers, and cross switches to other subnets. Good old ping might 
suffice but how to do it in livecode?

The solution can be OSX-specific since it will run either under OSX 
Tiger or Leopeard (no Snow). Something like an automated IP Scan or 
Angry IP Scanner made in LiveCode. Using NMap through a shell call 
would be acceptable.

Robert