I took it as a serious post - but with a humerous example provided. (Very comprehensive and useful example).

I'm not after it for XP. It's of interest to me because although my skills are limited - I like doing things in Perl (even if they don't have much use) and because the web and web related stuff is such a big part life nowadays.

What I intend using if for first is to try to use it to connect to network devices (printers and the like) to query them for their status, toner levels etc.
I had managed to use something around LWP to read a single page. But I couldn't work out\do form submission or following links. I'm now hoping I might be able to 'read' DHTML pages (the world moves on and I'm a looong way behind). The next challege is HTTPS (really stumped there) as even though they are just friggin' printers the world has gone security mad!

Thanks again for your efforts and bravery in doing\posting.