Ping has no knowledge of ports per se. Ports, which are a layer 4 phenomenon, cannot be tested with ICMP. If you want to see if a port is active, you can telnet to the box on the given port.

Just in the last few days I keep getting stuff hitting my firewall on port 500, wtf? <BR>Is there a new work that uses port 500? If so I cant see it being very successfull...I mean who opens port ...