Please note that the ping command will fail against many servers these days. Ping sends a particular type of packet (ICMP) which is blocked by many firewalls on the internet today.

A good command to get an IP from a website URL is nslookup. Get a command prompt and type

nslookup www.nameofwebsite.com

You'll see something like this:

Server: nameserver.yourisp.com
Address: x.x.x.x

Name: hostname.nameofwebsite.com
Address: y.y.y.y
Aliases: www.nameofwebsite.com

The item you are looking for, the IP of the website server, is y.y.y.y in the above output.

- Qualm