Shell Programming and Scripting

I still haven't had chance to read the entire Debian manual, which I promise I will do as soon as I can, and I will start putting info back into this forum.

However, for the mean time, could someone please help with a small script? I understand what I've got to do and how to do it, but I'm struggling with getting the syntax right.

I have a loads of nodes I need to connect to from time to time, but I'm never sure if they're alive. So instead of ssh'ing and waiting ages to either get a connection, or not, I'd sooner start with a ping, if there is a good response, set off the ssh. At this point I might have 10 terminal sessions open for different nodes, so I want to automate as much as possible.

So the pseudo would be:

User types:
con user@192.168.xxx.xxx

Code:

#!/bin/bash
Strip ip from $1 to str-IP
Start loop from 1 to 10 (arbitrary):
Create a bln-Connection variable and set value = False
Start loop from 1 to 10 (Arbitrary)
--Ping the str-IP
--If response | grep includes ttl or time, or ms I guess:
----set bln-Connection = True
----exit the loop

If bln-Connection = True:
--ssh $1
else
--echo "The blooming thing is down again."

Something like that. I hope that's clear enough, and I know I'm using about 3 different languages, just none of it bash!

Many, many thanks.

Moderator's Comments:

edit by bakunin: Please use CODE-tags, even for Pseudo-code. Thank you.