exist
                or could not be reached.</dd>
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<h4>ping</h4>
<pre>public&nbsp;boolean&nbsp;ping(java.lang.String&nbsp;node,
                    long&nbsp;timeout)</pre>
<div class="block"><p>
 Create a connection to a remote node.
 </p>

 <p>
 Strictly speaking, this method is not necessary simply to set up a
 connection, since connections are created automatically first time a
 messag