This is the fast solution with threads

import os, re, threading

class ip_check(threading.Thread):

     def __init__ (self,ip):

            threading.Thread.__init__(self)

            self.ip = ip

            self.__successful_pings = -1

     def run(self):

            ping_out = os.popen("ping -q -c2 "+self.ip,"r")

            while True:

                line = ping_out.readline()

                if not line: break

                n_received = re.findall(received_packages,line)

                if n_received:

                     self.__successful_pings = int(n_received[0])

     def status(self):

            if self.__successful_pings == 0:

                 return "no response"

            elif self.__successful_pings == 1:

                 return "alive, but 50 % package loss"

            elif self.__successful_pings == 2:

                 return "alive"

            else:

                 return "shouldn't occur"

received_packages = re.compile(r"(\d) received")

check_results = []

for suffix in range(20,70):

     ip = "192.168.178."+str(suffix)

     current = ip_check(ip)

     check_results.append(current)

     current.start()

for el in check_results:

     el.join()

     print "Status from ", el.ip,"is",el.status()