perl network / internet access problems

fireartist has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've installed perl 5.8.6 in the home directory of my website host's server and am having trouble accessing the network and internet with it.

DBD-mysql fails with error Unknown MySQL Server Host 'db1.int.myhosts.com'. Using the IP address I got by pinging the mysql server, I can connect OK.
The site-installed perl at /usr/bin/perl works OK with both the IP address and the url.

CPAN fails to download anything. By changing lib/5.8.6/Net/FTP.pm to force Passive mode, it works OK.
The site-installed perl works OK.

My first thought was that it's something to do with the hostname setup.
I've compared the hostname / domain in both my Config.pm and the site-installed Config.pm - they are identical.

I attempted to download a file from a CPAN mirror using the wget program. It works OK with a http url, but fails with a ftp url for the exact same file.
This suggests it might be firewall issues, but doesn't explain why the site installed perl is having no issues.

I'll reply to this node with the output of some tests, so as to not overload this with too much data.

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Re: perl network / internet access problems by fireartist (Chaplain) on Feb 03, 2005 at 10:45 UTC
Contents of test file "ftp.pl": Read more... (851 Bytes) Runs OK with the site installed Perl: Read more... (3 kB) Fails with self-installed perl: Read more... (3 kB) Self-installed perl runs ok after switching adding "`Passive => 1`" in the Net::FTP constructor. Read more... (3 kB) Site-installed perl Config.pm %Config Read more... (19 kB) Self-installed perl Config.pm %Config Read more... (25 kB)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: perl network / internet access problems by Corion (Patriarch) on Feb 03, 2005 at 11:16 UTC
Your self-compiled Perl does not use the passive FTP transfer. You need to configure your `CPAN/Config.pm` the same as the working Perls `CPAN/Config.pm`, and especially mind the Use passive FTP transfers question. CPAN.pm should be patched so that passive transfers are the default option, but this is not yet the case.	[reply]
Re^3: perl network / internet access problems by fireartist (Chaplain) on Feb 03, 2005 at 11:36 UTC
A search of the Config.pm output from both perl versions turns up no instances of 'ftp' or 'passive'. I'll re-run `sh Configure` and pay more attention. Unfortunately it doesn't explain the mysql connection issue. Although I can connect with IP address, it's less than ideal, as I can't guarantee the IP won't change.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: perl network / internet access problems by Corion (Patriarch) on Feb 03, 2005 at 12:01 UTC
Re^4: perl network / internet access problems by hsinclai (Deacon) on Feb 03, 2005 at 14:05 UTC
Re^5: perl network / internet access problems by aquarium (Curate) on Feb 03, 2005 at 14:30 UTC


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