Yes, LWP::UserAgent was the ticket. This was the ideal solution that I was seeking:
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
my $response = $ua->get($url);
if ($response->is_success){
(good things happen)
} else {
my $failmsg= ($response->status_line);
(print the $failmsg)
return;
}
BUT, for this to work, the web based script, after being triggered by the get(), must return some response that is part of the HTTP protocol. I added this line to the top of the web based script:
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
Otherwise you receive a 500 Internal Server Error.
Thanks again for the help!