I tried doing the "perl -MCPAN -e shell" command
you suggested but it asks for something that we
do not have on our system.
It was ncftpget.
The prompt for this won't let me by it unless I
type something.
Try this link which will take you to the appropriate web site. You need the client - proabably just use one of the precompiled binaries. Make sure to install in a bin that is part of your $PATH. Its pretty standard and either you or the admins should be able to install it easily.