One caveat to LWP::Simple

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

use strict; 
use warnings;

# use LWP::Simple this way, to ensure a proper LWP::UserAgent object
# (that speaks HTTP/1.1) is used by all methods.
#
# Without it some methods use a lightweight client that only
# speaks HTTP/1.0, which your server might treat differently,
# and might give you different results then you expect.

use LWP::Simple qw(:DEFAULT $ua);

my $data = get('http://cnet.com/bogus/');

# http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=412544