Opps this should be readable
this is a bit cleaner.
open(FH, "//server/path/to/file") or die $!;
print while(<FH>);
close (FH);

for a bit of an explanation:
Perl sees the \ as a meta escape in " strings.
so
"\\server\path\to\file" becomes "serverpathtofile"
there are the solutions:

double slashes:
"\\\\server\\path\\to\\file"
unix path symantics:
"//server/path/to/file"
this works because perl understands both even on NT
' quoted string
'\\server\path\to\file'
this works because single quoted strings ignore meta chars.

Hope this helped.

-wyn