Thanks, I have tried that approach, and there does seem to be a lot more data that is downloaded. It still throws up the same error though:

C:\tmp>ppm install DBI.ppd
Installing package 'DBI.ppd'...
Can't call method "gzread" on an undefined value at c:/Perl/site/lib/A
+rchive/Tar.pm line 274.
[download]

Maybe I should try to re-install Archive::Tar or Compress::Zlib?
Cheers!