i didn't see any debugging level specifiable on 'pp

So you think Test::SOAP::connect: read failed is an error message that comes from pp?

See PAR::Environment for debugging PAR

but not -x. when you mentioned it, i tried, but there was no difference. it seemed like a lot of detailed output and related to SSL and/or dynamic loading in LWP. I found a reasonable solution after reading the next reply. see below.

When you used -x did your program attempt to load a https website?

Thats the thing with on-demand plugins, unless you demand them, they're not loaded :)