diff --git a/exercises/boot_from_volume.sh b/exercises/boot_from_volume.sh
index aa348307af..d520b9bbbf 100755
--- a/exercises/boot_from_volume.sh
+++ b/exercises/boot_from_volume.sh
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ IP=$(get_instance_ip $VM_UUID $PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME)
 die_if_not_set $LINENO IP "Failure retrieving IP address"
 
 # Private IPs can be pinged in single node deployments
-ping_check "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME" $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT
+ping_check $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME"
 
 # Clean up
 # --------
diff --git a/exercises/euca.sh b/exercises/euca.sh
index df5e233b8d..c2957e222b 100755
--- a/exercises/euca.sh
+++ b/exercises/euca.sh
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ else
         die $LINENO "Failure authorizing rule in $SECGROUP"
 
     # Test we can ping our floating ip within ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT seconds
-    ping_check "$PUBLIC_NETWORK_NAME" $FLOATING_IP $ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT
+    ping_check $FLOATING_IP $ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT "$PUBLIC_NETWORK_NAME"
 
     # Revoke pinging
     euca-revoke -P icmp -s 0.0.0.0/0 -t -1:-1 $SECGROUP || \
diff --git a/exercises/floating_ips.sh b/exercises/floating_ips.sh
index 59444e1ebd..4b72a0073f 100755
--- a/exercises/floating_ips.sh
+++ b/exercises/floating_ips.sh
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ IP=$(get_instance_ip $VM_UUID $PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME)
 die_if_not_set $LINENO IP "Failure retrieving IP address"
 
 # Private IPs can be pinged in single node deployments
-ping_check "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME" $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT
+ping_check $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME"
 
 # Floating IPs
 # ------------
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ nova add-floating-ip $VM_UUID $FLOATING_IP || \
     die $LINENO "Failure adding floating IP $FLOATING_IP to $VM_NAME"
 
 # Test we can ping our floating IP within ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT seconds
-ping_check "$PUBLIC_NETWORK_NAME" $FLOATING_IP $ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT
+ping_check $FLOATING_IP $ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT "$PUBLIC_NETWORK_NAME"
 
 if ! is_service_enabled neutron; then
     # Allocate an IP from second floating pool
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ fi
 # FIXME (anthony): make xs support security groups
 if [ "$VIRT_DRIVER" != "ironic" -a "$VIRT_DRIVER" != "xenserver" -a "$VIRT_DRIVER" != "openvz" ]; then
     # Test we can aren't able to ping our floating ip within ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT seconds
-    ping_check "$PUBLIC_NETWORK_NAME" $FLOATING_IP $ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT Fail
+    ping_check $FLOATING_IP $ASSOCIATE_TIMEOUT "$PUBLIC_NETWORK_NAME" Fail
 fi
 
 # Clean up
diff --git a/exercises/neutron-adv-test.sh b/exercises/neutron-adv-test.sh
index 9230587817..04892b0e93 100755
--- a/exercises/neutron-adv-test.sh
+++ b/exercises/neutron-adv-test.sh
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ function ping_ip {
     local VM_NAME=$1
     local NET_NAME=$2
     IP=$(get_instance_ip $VM_NAME $NET_NAME)
-    ping_check $NET_NAME $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT
+    ping_check $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT $NET_NAME
 }
 
 function check_vm {
diff --git a/exercises/volumes.sh b/exercises/volumes.sh
index 3ac2016254..f95c81fdf1 100755
--- a/exercises/volumes.sh
+++ b/exercises/volumes.sh
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ IP=$(get_instance_ip $VM_UUID $PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME)
 die_if_not_set $LINENO IP "Failure retrieving IP address"
 
 # Private IPs can be pinged in single node deployments
-ping_check "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME" $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT
+ping_check $IP $BOOT_TIMEOUT "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME"
 
 # Volumes
 # -------
diff --git a/functions b/functions
index 4dc20e7f23..339779c338 100644
--- a/functions
+++ b/functions
@@ -340,40 +340,43 @@ function wait_for_service {
 
 
 # ping check
-# Uses globals ``ENABLED_SERVICES``
-# ping_check from-net ip boot-timeout expected
+# Uses globals ``ENABLED_SERVICES``, ``TOP_DIR``, ``MULTI_HOST``, ``PRIVATE_NETWORK``
+# ping_check <ip> [boot-timeout] [from_net] [expected]
 function ping_check {
-    if is_service_enabled neutron; then
-        _ping_check_neutron  "$1" $2 $3 $4
-        return
-    fi
-    _ping_check_novanet "$1" $2 $3 $4
-}
+    local ip=$1
+    local timeout=${2:-30}
+    local from_net=${3:-""}
+    local expected=${4:-True}
+    local op="!"
+    local failmsg="[Fail] Couldn't ping server"
+    local ping_cmd="ping"
 
-# ping check for nova
-# Uses globals ``MULTI_HOST``, ``PRIVATE_NETWORK``
-function _ping_check_novanet {
-    local from_net=$1
-    local ip=$2
-    local boot_timeout=$3
-    local expected=${4:-"True"}
-    local check_command=""
-    MULTI_HOST=$(trueorfalse False MULTI_HOST)
-    if [[ "$MULTI_HOST" = "True" && "$from_net" = "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME" ]]; then
-        return
-    fi
-    if [[ "$expected" = "True" ]]; then
-        check_command="while ! ping -c1 -w1 $ip; do sleep 1; done"
-    else
-        check_command="while ping -c1 -w1 $ip; do sleep 1; done"
-    fi
-    if ! timeout $boot_timeout sh -c "$check_command"; then
-        if [[ "$expected" = "True" ]]; then
-            die $LINENO "[Fail] Couldn't ping server"
-        else
-            die $LINENO "[Fail] Could ping server"
+    # if we don't specify a from_net we're expecting things to work
+    # fine from our local box.
+    if [[ -n "$from_net" ]]; then
+        if is_service_enabled neutron; then
+            ping_cmd="$TOP_DIR/tools/ping_neutron.sh $from_net"
+        elif [[ "$MULTI_HOST" = "True" && "$from_net" = "$PRIVATE_NETWORK_NAME" ]]; then
+            # there is no way to address the multihost / private case, bail here for compatibility.
+            # TODO: remove this cruft and redo code to handle this at the caller level.
+            return
         fi
     fi
+
+    # inverse the logic if we're testing no connectivity
+    if [[ "$expected" != "True" ]]; then
+        op=""
+        failmsg="[Fail] Could ping server"
+    fi
+
+    # Because we've transformed this command so many times, print it
+    # out at the end.
+    local check_command="while $op $ping_cmd -c1 -w1 $ip; do sleep 1; done"
+    echo "Checking connectivity with $check_command"
+
+    if ! timeout $timeout sh -c "$check_command"; then
+        die $LINENO $failmsg
+    fi
 }
 
 # Get ip of instance
diff --git a/lib/neutron-legacy b/lib/neutron-legacy
index c6d9296fba..80e78d5db6 100644
--- a/lib/neutron-legacy
+++ b/lib/neutron-legacy
@@ -1404,27 +1404,6 @@ function _get_probe_cmd_prefix {
     echo "$Q_RR_COMMAND ip netns exec qprobe-$probe_id"
 }
 
-function _ping_check_neutron {
-    local from_net=$1
-    local ip=$2
-    local timeout_sec=$3
-    local expected=${4:-"True"}
-    local check_command=""
-    probe_cmd=`_get_probe_cmd_prefix $from_net`
-    if [[ "$expected" = "True" ]]; then
-        check_command="while ! $probe_cmd ping -w 1 -c 1 $ip; do sleep 1; done"
-    else
-        check_command="while $probe_cmd ping -w 1 -c 1 $ip; do sleep 1; done"
-    fi
-    if ! timeout $timeout_sec sh -c "$check_command"; then
-        if [[ "$expected" = "True" ]]; then
-            die $LINENO "[Fail] Couldn't ping server"
-        else
-            die $LINENO "[Fail] Could ping server"
-        fi
-    fi
-}
-
 # ssh check
 function _ssh_check_neutron {
     local from_net=$1
diff --git a/tools/ping_neutron.sh b/tools/ping_neutron.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..d36b7f60c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ping_neutron.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+# Ping a neutron guest using a network namespace probe
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o pipefail
+
+TOP_DIR=$(cd $(dirname "$0")/.. && pwd)
+
+# This *must* be run as the admin tenant
+source $TOP_DIR/openrc admin admin
+
+function usage {
+    cat - <<EOF
+ping_neutron.sh <net_name> [ping args]
+
+This provides a wrapper to ping neutron guests that are on isolated
+tenant networks that the caller can't normally reach. It does so by
+creating a network namespace probe.
+
+It takes arguments like ping, except the first arg must be the network
+name.
+
+Note: in environments with duplicate network names, the results are
+non deterministic.
+
+This should *really* be in the neutron cli.
+
+EOF
+    exit 1
+}
+
+NET_NAME=$1
+
+if [[ -z "$NET_NAME" ]]; then
+    echo "Error: net_name is required"
+    usage
+fi
+
+REMANING_ARGS="${@:2}"
+
+# BUG: with duplicate network names, this fails pretty hard.
+NET_ID=$(neutron net-list $NET_NAME | grep "$NET_NAME" | awk '{print $2}')
+PROBE_ID=$(neutron-debug probe-list -c id -c network_id | grep "$NET_ID" | awk '{print $2}' | head -n 1)
+
+# This runs a command inside the specific netns
+NET_NS_CMD="ip netns exec qprobe-$PROBE_ID"
+
+PING_CMD="sudo $NET_NS_CMD ping $REMAING_ARGS"
+echo "Running $PING_CMD"
+$PING_CMD