PowerShell Script to Ping Computers Works but Give Errors - windows

Question

The script below works and produces output file but gives errors. I've looked at other questions and answers that addresses the same problem in a similar way but I'm still not able to figure out how to fix this problem. I've done this with a splat before but not quite sure how to make it work in this script. All help would be appreciated. Error is first and script is below that.
Error below
Test-Connection : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'ComputerName'. The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not null or empty, and then try the command
again.
At C:\Temp\PowerShellScripts\PingComputers\colorfulPingMultipleComputers.ps1:6 char:37
+ if (Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction Silen ...
+ ~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Test-Connection], ParameterBindingValidationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TestConnectionCommand
Script below
$Output= #()
$names = Get-content C:\Temp\Computers.txt
foreach ($name in $names){
if (Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue){
$Output+= "$name, Pinging"
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "$Name, Pinging"
}
else{
$Output+= "$name, Not Pinging"
Write-Host Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "$Name, Not Pinging"
}
}
$Output | Out-file "C:\Temp\PingComputers.csv"
The script produces this output, computer names changed for privacy. So it does what I want it to do, but it still gives the errors as indicated above for each machine
AAA-L-CWCXRQ2, Pinging
BBB-L-DW2FQQ2, Pinging
CCC-L-JN3RM72, Pinging
DDD-L-34SQRQ2, Pinging
EEE-L-84F3ZM2, Pinging
Write-Host FFF-L-1B1CM72, Not Pinging
GGG-L-94XXRQ2, Pinging
Write-Host FFF-L-D5KXRQ2, Not Pinging
Write-Host GGG-L-75SX4Q2, Not Pinging

Answer 1

My guess is you have a blank line at the end of your text file. See this example.
$tempfile = New-TemporaryFile
#'
google.com
bing.com
'# | Set-Content $tempfile -Encoding UTF8
Get-Content $tempfile | foreach {
Test-Connection -ComputerName $_ -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
I'd recommend just changing this line
$names = Get-content C:\Temp\Computers.txt
to
$names = Get-content C:\Temp\Computers.txt | Where-Object {$_}
which will filter out blank lines