Private Function encodeBase64(ByRef arrData() As Byte) As String
    Dim objXML As MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Dim objNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement

    Set objXML = New MSXML2.DOMDocument

    Set objNode = objXML.createElement("b64")
    objNode.DataType = "bin.base64"
    objNode.nodeTypedValue = arrData
    encodeBase64 = objNode.Text

    Set objNode = Nothing
    Set objXML = Nothing
End Function

Private Function decodeBase64(ByVal strData As String) As Byte()
    Dim objXML As MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Dim objNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement

    Set objXML = New MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Set objNode = objXML.createElement("b64")
    objNode.DataType = "bin.base64"
    objNode.Text = strData
    decodeBase64 = objNode.nodeTypedValue

    Set objNode = Nothing
    Set objXML = Nothing
End Function

Function bin2Byte(ByVal s As String) As Byte()
    Dim bitsIn As Long
    bitsIn = 8

    Dim i As Long
    'pad with zeros
    If Len(s) Mod bitsIn <> 0 Then
        For i = 1 To bitsIn - Len(s) Mod bitsIn
            s = "0" & s
        Next i
    End If

    i = Len(s)
    Dim bytes() As Byte
    Dim byteCount As Long
    byteCount = -1
    Dim sByte As String
    Do While LenB(s) > 0
        byteCount = byteCount + 1
        ReDim Preserve bytes(byteCount)

        sByte = Mid$(s, Len(s) - bitsIn + 1)
        'sByte = Mid$(s, 1, bitsIn)
        For i = 0 To 7 Step 1
            bytes(byteCount) = bytes(byteCount) + CLng(Mid$(sByte, 8 - i, 1)) * 2 ^ i
        Next i
        s = Mid$(s, 1, Len(s) - bitsIn)
        's = Mid$(s, bitsIn + 1)
    Loop
    bin2Byte = bytes
End Function

Function byte2Bin(ByRef bytes() As Byte) As String
    Dim i As Long, j As Long
    Dim bin As String
    For i = 0 To UBound(bytes)
        bin = Space$(8)

        For j = 0 To 7
            If bytes(i) And 2 ^ j Then
                Mid(bin, 8 - j, 1) = "1"
            Else
                'Mid(bin, 8 - j, 1) = "0"
            End If
        Next j

        byte2Bin = bin & byte2Bin
    Next i
    byte2Bin = LTrim$(byte2Bin)
    byte2Bin = Replace(byte2Bin, " ", "0", 1, -1, vbBinaryCompare)
End Function

Sub tester()
    'note we can't add any 0 padding to the test binary string
    Dim bin As String
    bin = "111101000001100010101"
    Dim binOut As String
    binOut = byte2Bin(decodeBase64(encodeBase64(bin2Byte(bin))))

    MsgBox binOut = bin
End Sub

Thanks to Tim Hastings for the Base64 functions.

• Didn’t use GetObject.
• Didn’t display any command (cmd) prompt.
• Didn’t use a temporary files.

Here is what I found;

<br />
Function ping(node)<br />
    Set WshShell = CreateObject(&quot;WScript.Shell&quot;)<br />
    ping = Not CBool(WshShell.Run(&quot;ping -n 1 &quot; &amp; node, 0, True))<br />
End Function<br />

I was looking at a way to timeout the ping function after 1 second using Threading but this didn’t quite make it so simple. Whilst ping offers a timeout value if you ping an incorrect hostname it will hang for a little while.

Exaample below uses Column A with the first 3 rows used for the header:

=INDEX(A:A,COUNT(A:A)+3)