Test the Status of URI/URL in PowerShell

function Test-Uri
{
    ##############################################################################
    ##
    ## Test-Uri
    ##
    ## From Windows PowerShell Cookbook (O'Reilly)
    ## by Lee Holmes (http://www.leeholmes.com/guide)
    ##
    ##############################################################################

    <#

    .SYNOPSIS

    Connects to a given URI and returns status about it: URI, response code,
    and time taken.

    .EXAMPLE

    PS > Test-Uri bing.com

    Uri               : bing.com
    StatusCode        : 200
    StatusDescription : OK
    ResponseLength    : 34001
    TimeTaken         : 459.0009

    #>

    param(
        ## The URI to test
        $Uri
    )

    $request = $null
    $time = try
    {
        ## Request the URI, and measure how long the response took.
    	$result = Measure-Command { $request = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $uri }
        $result.TotalMilliseconds
    }
    catch
    {
        ## If the request generated an exception (i.e.: 500 server
        ## error or 404 not found), we can pull the status code from the
        ## Exception.Response property
        $request = $_.Exception.Response
        $time = -1
    }

    $result = [PSCustomObject] @{
        Time = Get-Date;
        Uri = $uri;
        StatusCode = [int] $request.StatusCode;
        StatusDescription = $request.StatusDescription;
        ResponseLength = $request.RawContentLength;
        TimeTaken = $time;
    }

    $result
}