Thread Question

[D]

I have a client application that I want (behind the scenes) to check
and make sure a remote host is up (i.e. by ping or TCP connect).  I'm
assuming that, since I want this to go on "unknowingly" to the user,
that I would put this in a thread.  My question is, how would I go
about creating the thread?  I have seen examples that used classes, and
other examples that just called one thread start command - when should
you use one over another?  Thanks in advance.

Doug