Just to prevent confusion

1. HTTP is port 80, not 81. Of course you can set your server to use any other port, but 80 is the standard.
2. The web server will not send you anything until you send it your request. You might want to read RFC 2068 (Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1) ... or not. I think it can't hurt to browse through the document a bit.

Anyway ... it's much better to stick to LWP for what you need now.

Jenda