I've just re-read your OP and noticed that you said you were using v1.04. That's more than 20 years old! It is rather impressive that you have been using it solidly for so long and only just now hit a problem.
Anyway, glad the upgrade has fixed it for you. Perhaps maybe consider an audit of other key modules in use on your systems with a few to further upgrades? ;-)
actually - not me, my client is. They keep cloning old boxes and we end up with stuff like this sometimes. Thanks for the observation I had no idea it was THAT old! I'd love to do a CPAN update on all but the client only allows them selectively.