Monitoring a network connection from a remote host

Copy#!/bin/bash

TARGET=8.8.8.8 # Target host or IP address to be monitored.
MAIL_RECIPIENT=you@example.com # eMail address where to send failures to.
NUMBER_OF_TEST_PACKETS=5 # Number of ICMP packets to be sent to the target. If any fails, you'll get notified.

function do_monitoring {
  ping -q -c $NUMBER_OF_TEST_PACKETS $TARGET
  status=$?
  if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
      mail_traceroute $TARGET
  fi
  return $status
}

function mail_traceroute {
  MTR_OUTPUT=$(mtr -n -r $@)
  HOSTNAME=$(hostname -f)
  mail -s "Monitoring failure: Connection to $TARGET failed" $MAIL_RECIPIENT <<EOF
Hey,

this is $HOSTNAME calling.
I just sent $NUMBER_OF_TEST_PACKETS ICMP packets to $TARGET and that failed apparently.
Here is a traceroute to $TARGET:

$MTR_OUTPUT
EOF
}

do_monitoring

CopyHey,

this is foo.example.com calling.
I just sent two ICMP packets to 1.2.3.4 and that failed apparently.
Here is a traceroute to 1.2.3.4:

HOST: foo.example.com       Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1.|-- 10.10.13.1                 0.0%    10    0.4   0.3   0.2   0.5   0.1
2.|-- 10.179.144.1              0.0%    10    0.7   0.7   0.7   0.8   0.0
3.|-- 212.18.7.63                0.0%    10    2.2   7.0   2.1  51.0  15.4
4.|-- 194.59.190.61              0.0%    10    2.3  11.4   2.2  83.0  25.3
5.|-- 66.249.94.86               0.0%    10   26.3  13.3   9.6  29.1   7.6
6.|-- 216.239.48.117             0.0%    10   10.0  10.0  10.0  10.1   0.0
7.|-- 209.85.254.118             0.0%    10   10.0  12.7   9.8  38.1   8.9
  |  `|-- 209.85.254.112
8.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
9.|-- 8.8.8.8                    0.0%    10    9.9   9.9   9.9  10.0   0.0