diff --git a/exercises/floating_ips.sh b/exercises/floating_ips.sh
index dd40aa0..82f29eb 100755
--- a/exercises/floating_ips.sh
+++ b/exercises/floating_ips.sh
@@ -121,8 +121,8 @@
 die_if_not_set IP "Failure retrieving IP address"
 
 # for single node deployments, we can ping private ips
-MULTI_HOST=${MULTI_HOST:-0}
-if [ "$MULTI_HOST" = "0" ]; then
+MULTI_HOST=`trueorfalse False $MULTI_HOST`
+if [ "$MULTI_HOST" = "False" ]; then
     # sometimes the first ping fails (10 seconds isn't enough time for the VM's
     # network to respond?), so let's ping for a default of 15 seconds with a
     # timeout of a second for each ping.