while ( { if (/IP\sAddress\s+(\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+)/) { push @MYIP, $1; } ... } $ff = $MYIP[0]; $fk = "$ff:255.255.255.0"; # even better, use 2 arg version of Net::Netmask->new2 $block = Net::Netmask->new2( $MYIP[0], '255.255.255.0'); ...