Can I run a cmdlet in the IF comparison instead of using a variable?

Question

I'm writing a script to run a continuous Test-Connection ping through task scheduler.  This script, upon a non-response, will write to a custom event log I've set up.
Without writing a book, here's an example of what I want to save time and get more ping requests.  Here's the way I have it now:
$ping1 = Test-Connection 1.1.1.1 -count 1
if ($ping1 -eq $null) {
Write-EventLog blah blah blah
Here's how I would rather do it to save that extra second or two from establishing the variable (this obviously doesn't work, otherwise I wouldn't be posting this):
if ("Test-Connection 1.1.1.1 -count 1" -eq $null) {
Write-EventLog blah blah blah
Is this at all possible?  If so, can you share the syntax?
Right now, I have a foreach running 3 different pings and writing to my custom log on error.  I have purposefully configured one to fail and the other two to be successful.  Right now, I'm getting 8 seconds between that one failure.  Ideally,
with just 3 IPs, this should be 3 seconds.

Answer 1

Hi,
Try this:
If (!(Test-Connection hostname -Quiet -Count 1)) { Write-Host 'Host is down' }
EDIT: ! is used in place of -not. You could also do this:
If ((Test-Connection hostname -Quiet -Count 1) -eq $false) { Write-Host 'Host is down' }
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